Dance Umbrella Assures Global Access to Its Upcoming Festival

While many arts organizations turned to digital programming during the pandemic, few have maintained online access to their events. Dance Umbrella, however, is an exception. As London’s international contemporary dance festival enters its 46th year, it celebrates its fourth year of digital programming, continuing to offer access beyond geographical limitations. Dance Umbrella’s commitment to equality and accessibility is evident in its Pay What You Can pricing model for the digital pass, ensuring that art can be enjoyed by all.

Dance Umbrella 2024 Festival takes place from 9 to 31 October and features performances by trailblazing artists across London and online. Since 2020, the festival has offered a curated digital programme of dance films and artist encounters, making it easier than ever for global audiences to experience cutting-edge contemporary dance.

As Dance Umbrella’s co-CEO and Artistic Director Freddie Opoku-Addaie explains, “Dance Umbrella 2024 is our 46th Festival taking place across our global city, and 4th online as we continue to connect and grow with our national and international audiences. This year’s festival encapsulates themes of transformation, reflection, and representation. We dedicate it to Emma Gladstone, Dance Umbrella’s Artistic Director and CEO during 2014-20. Emma’s creative brilliance and ethical compass were always pioneering, whilst being aligned with a rapidly changing world.”

The festival’s live performances will feature internationally acclaimed artists such as South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza (Hatched Ensemble at the Barbican), UK-based Hetain Patel (Mathroo Basha), Diana Niepce (The Other Side of Dance at the Southbank Centre), and the collective POCKETART (Fairy Tales at The Place). Other notable performances include the return of Change Tempo at Brixton House, showcasing the works of Adam Seid Tahir and Amina Seid Tahir.

For those unable to attend in person, Dance Umbrella’s digital programme offers an equally enriching experience, with access available from 9 to 31 October. The Pay What You Can Digital Pass includes a selection of innovative dance films, artist encounters, and panel discussions, bringing contemporary dance into homes worldwide.

Abby Z & the New Utility: Radioactive Practice

Hurtling onto the stage with explosive physicality, six performers challenge their physical and mental limits in a genre-bending new work.

Drawing influences from street dance, synchronised swimming, post-modern dance, tap, football, martial arts and contemporary African forms; Radioactive Practice from award-winning American choreographer Abby Zbikowski and crew, shatters movement expectations and explores our instincts for survival.

This powerful piece was recontextualised from the stage for film by director Jeremy Jacob to interrogate the complexities of contemporary living.  Learn more.

Lea Anderson: The Featherstonehaughs Draw on the Sketchbooks of Egon Schiele

Many years ago, when leafing through the books in the Arnolfini bookshop, choreographer Lea Anderson discovered the work of Austrian expressionist painter, Egon Schiele. Lea was taken by the possibility of seeing Schiele’s framing of the repeated figures in the reproduction of his sketchbooks, as a system for writing dance. What resulted from this intrigue was a full misconstruction of dances, imagining Schiele as a choreographer whose dances had been lost.

Originally created in 1998 as a live work, it was remade as a film in 2010 in collaboration with Deborah May of Kinoki and with new music by Steve Blake and Will Saunders. The film has never been publicly aired and will be a world premiere for Dance Umbrella 2024.

Lea Anderson is a celebrated dance choreographer, filmmaker and artistic director. Her iconic dance company The Cholmondeleys is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and its brother company, The Featherstonehaughs is not far behind. Lea makes groundbreaking theatre work and films, was awarded an MBE in 2002 and was given an honorary doctorate of arts from Dartington College of Arts in 2006.  Learn more.

Rosemary Lee & Hugo Glendinning: Sentence

Photographer and filmmaker Hugo Glendinning and choreographer Rosemary Lee‘s acclaimed short film, Sentence, explores the fleeting nature of dance through innovative animation techniques and slow shutter speed.

Filmed in the iconic former courtroom at London’s Toynbee Studios, dancer Lauren Potter’s movements blur in and out of the dark wooden panels, an effect created using only variations in shutter speed and the dancer’s actions which needed to be repeated for long periods of time to create short sequences.

Crafted during the isolating period of lockdown and accompanied by Isaac Lee-Kronick‘s haunting soundtrack, Sentence is both poetic and mysterious, and evokes a profound sense of longing. Learn more.

POCKETART: Folds of Touch

Inspired by memories of the choreographer Johana Pocková’s grandmother, Folds of Touch by POCKETART follows four female dancers, an eight-year-old girl and a 90-year-old woman, as they perform on stage. Based on the production Warehouses Full of Emotions, the film is both a documentary of the play and a fictional depiction of the women’s lives in real time.

This production delves into the complexity of human emotions, exploring our endless desires, fluctuating self-perceptions, and the journey from sharing feelings with others to finding inner strength. A poetic reflection on youth, aging, and the human condition.

POCKETART’s work tackles global society issues. This work for the screen, filmed and edited by Barbora Johansson, is influenced by intergenerational views on feminism and the authentic memories of an older woman.  Learn more.

Hetain Patel: Animations, 2020

British visual artist and filmmaker Hetain Patel created this series of animations during lockdown in 2020. Initially intended to loop infinitely as individual works, they are presented as part of Dance Umbrella Festival as a single screen taster series for the first time.

Reflecting on his approach to all his multidisciplinary practices, Hetain is interested in the specificity of each medium he uses – in this case, some explorations for the body that are only possibly through animation.

A highly sought after artist, Hetain’s online performance work, including his 2013 Ted Talk, has been viewed over 50 million times. He recently joined the selection committee for the BAFTAs in 2023 and is currently working on a major project with Artangel.  Learn more. 

Ioanna Paraskevopoulou: Choreographer’s Cut: MOS

Dive into some of the most exciting minds in contemporary choreography. Now in its fifth year, this edition of Dance Umbrella’s Choreographer’s Cut features Ioanna Paraskevopoulou.

Using everyday objects: umbrellas, plungers, and of course, coconut shells, MOS, which had its UK premiere at the Barbican as part of Dance Umbrella 2023, evokes the sound effects made by expert foley artists for film and TV. The physical act of generating audio while following the film becomes energetic dance, with tap numbers turned into recordings that are looped, distorted, paused and intensified.

Filmed on the set of MOS at the Barbican, in this Choreographer’s Cut Ioanna takes us behind the scenes to look at the inner workings of her innovative production, which was a sell-out success at last year’s Dance Umbrella Festival.  Learn more.

Moving with Equity: A panel discussion on body politics

A recording of the panel discussion taking place on 9 October at London’s Barbican Centre.

Facilitated by author, journalist and Bernie Grant Arts Centre Artistic Director & CEO Azieb Pool, the panel will include author, actress, director and public speaker Kelechi Okafor, who is the host of the Say Your Mind podcast, as well as being a highly skilled pole and twerk fitness instructor.

They will be joined by choreographer Mamela Nyamza whose autobiographical work, which will be shown at the Barbican for four nights, addresses social injustice. She seeks to show the significance and particularity of each dancer’s movement that have been moulded by many diverse contexts and backgrounds through their history as classically trained dancers, permeated with embodiments of personal, public and political experiences as artists in South Africa.  Learn more. 

Lea Anderson:Artist Encounters

Artist Encounters is a live streamed professional development talk with a guest artist, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate.

This year, Artist Encounters will be led by choreographer Lea Anderson, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of her company The Cholmondeleys with the publication of two new books focusing on her work. Using these as a jumping off point, Lea, alongside author Mary Kate Connolly, will offer a window into a unique choreographic world.

In addition to revealing Lea’s unusual modes of collaboration with some of the UK’s leading creatives, they will explore the ways in which her works live on today via their rich archive of costumes and performance ephemera. From the earliest Cholmondeleys days of dancing in Doc Martens on beer-strewn gig platforms, to the rigour of sleek chorus lines for the theatre stage, and the precision of performed gallery exhibitions, Lea Anderson and her dancers have forged a unique path.

Glimpses of a vast notebook collection, short films, archival images and costume objects will allow for an intimate look at her way of working, and the legacy of her companies. This encounter will also unpick the ways in which collaborations between artist and scholar can ignite new after-lives for archival remnants and sustain both legacy and ongoing artistic practice.

A recording of the live stream will be available to view a few days after the event.  Learn more.

Is Theatre Stealing Dance’s Moves? A panel discussion on the role of Movement Director

Dance Umbrella has invited a distinguished panel of experts for a live streamed discussion about the role of movement director in theatre.

Chaired by Shakespeare’s Globe CEO Stella Kanu, panellists Polly Bennett (Saltburn, Elvis, The Crown), Yukiko Masui (SAY, Romeo & Juliet, The Effect) and Shelley Maxwell (Get Up Stand Up, Shifters, Macbeth) will delve into conversations around how movement direction differs from the role of choreographer, demystifying the process. They’ll talk about how movement direction has evolved in recent years and how it is more in demand than ever. They will also discuss how roles for movement directors have developed on film, television and commercial projects and what the future of choreography and movement direction might look like.

A recording of the live stream will be available to view a few days after the event. Learn more. 

The 2024 Dance Umbrella Digital Pass offers viewers a way to experience this year’s entire online programme, ensuring accessibility for global audiences. Available on a Pay What You Can basis, it runs from 9 to 31 October, with prices ranging from £5 to £30.

Main image: Abby Z and the New Utility, Radioactive Practice. Photo  by Maria Baranova