Dance Umbrella 2016

London’s annual international dance festival has been championing up-to-the-minute choreography since 1978. The celebrations aim to bring the joy of dance to 16 venues in every corner of the city,

Even better, the 16-day extravaganza also boasts talks to get involved in, never-before-seen film screenings and workshops.

To open the festival, five international choreographers will present five anonymous world premieres in Unknown Pleasures, co-commissioned with Sadler’s Wells and CCN – Ballet de Lorraine.

City-specific commission Gala by Jérôme Bel stars 20 Londoners from all walks of life, while one of India’s leading dance-makers, Aditi Mangaldas, makes her debut appearance at The Barbican with Inter_rupted. An impressive dancer of the Indian Kathak style, Mangaldas stars in the centre of her young troupe, who together shoot the traditional style through with contemporary movement and design.

If you want something for children, Erik Kaik Kaiel’s Tetris / O Snap / No Man is an Island fits the bill, as does Netherlands-based De Dansers’ family-friendly Dream City.

Celebrated Greek Olympic choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou’s Primal Matter will bring visual art to life. A dance for two, this piece is a personal response to the political, social and ethical realities of today’s Europe.

Similarly thought-provoking, Use My Body While It’s Still Young by Hege Haagenrud features four dancers aged 65-79 and examines our obsession with youth.

Laura Dannequin’s pop-up installation The Secret Slowness of Movement features a dance floor of fresh grass ready to entice anyone and everyone to have a bop barefoot.

Meanwhile, new British dance provocateur Jamila Johnson-Small reimagines what it means to be present and in the moment with i ride in colour and soft focus, no longer anywhere.

The dances of our lives – from awkward school discos to dreamy wedding waltzes – are revealed in Wallflower by Manchester-based Quarantine. At every show, a different performer chooses personal memories to dance.

Dance Umbrella 2016 promises to broaden audience members’ experience, pleasure and understanding of dance as an art form.