Dance Umbrella Marks its 47th Anniversary
Dance Umbrella bills itself as a festival of all things dance. Now just three years shy of its half-century, over the years it has brought to London a mind-blowing variety of dance makers and performers, both established and untested, national and international.
And it never ceases to evolve. Under the directorship (2013-2021) of the late, lamented Emma Gladstone, it unapologetically stretched its boundaries to become more umbrella than dance. Its current director, Freddie Opoku-Addaie, has followed the trend by opening the festival to all manner of experimental artists. He also introduced a digital programme running side by side with the live festival.
So, for the whole of October this year’s edition of Dance Umbrella, DU25, will take over many London venues for performances and panel discussions, with its parallel digital programme accessible online wherever you are in the world.
Here is a preview of some of the key live events in this year’s DU25.
The festival opens at Sadler’s Wells East with the UK premiere of Bogotá (2 & 3 October). Originally from Colombia, now based in Montreal, Andrea Peña & Artists present a show billed as “visceral, transgressive and magnetic” – though it’ll be up to you to decide precisely how magnetic it really is. More physical theatre than dance, its nine performers run through political transformations in Colombia, the whole liberally dosed with magic realism.
The Barbican Pit hosts the double bill Change Tempo (8 & 9 October).
A desire to challenge expectations of dance unites the two disparate numbers in this programme. Spanish dancer and actor María del Mar Suárez/La Chachi and singer Lola Dolores present Random Taranto, where much talking, posturing and eating of sunflower seeds gives way to an eruption of raw flamenco worth waiting for.
The other half of the programme comes courtesy of the Stockholm-based Australian artist and Culberg dancer Lilian Steiner. Performed on pointe, her Siren Dance uses absurdist techniques to explore seduction and shifting truths.
Possibly the most promising live event of DU25, Gesualdo Passione is performed in the Barbican Hall for one night only (16 October)
Blending the multinational talents of Senegalese choreographer and Dance Umbrella regular Amala Dianor and four dancers from his Compagnie Amala Dianor, six singers from France’s Les Arts Florissants and Glaswegian director Paul Agnew, Gesualdo Passione is inspired by the work of the 17th-century composer Carlo Gesualdo. Movement that comprises classical, contemporary and hip hop styles comes together with a cappella singing to create an atmospheric work referencing the passion of Christ.
The Brazilian artists Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira present the world premiere of Repertório No. 1 (18, 19 October), the final part in a trilogy exploring violence, at Porchester Hall.
Containing a fair bit of nudity, Repertório No 1 draws on post-colonial, gender and race studies to explore how the body can develop its form of self-defence. The body, they tell us, does not represent – it provokes.
You have been warned.
The live segment of DU25 ends at The Place (21- 22 October) with a performance by Tjimur Dance Theatre from Taiwan.
A contemporary dance company that expresses the identity of the indigenous Paiwan people, Tjimur Dance Theatre presents bulabulay mun? / how are you?
Choreographed by Baru Madiljin, it draws on a traumatic real-life event – the 19th-century Mudan shipwreck – to reflect on human actions and their unintended consequences.
The piece blends traditional Mudan songs and dance.
The digital programme for Dance Umbrella DU25, accessible from 2 October to 30 November via a Pay What You Can Digital Pass, includes a variety of especially made short films, as well as different facets of acts seen live in DU25, including Andre Peña & Artists – 6.58: Manifesto – and Compagnie Amala Dianor in partnership with the visual artist Grégoire Korganow.
Filmed in Le Corbusier’s famous Villa Savoye, just outside Paris, Nioun Rec establishes a dialogue between dance styles – urban, contemporary and African – and architecture. Well worth the price of a digital pass.
Live panel discussions on topics such as “Culture and the Global City” (Studio Wayne McGregor, 3 October) and “Art and Class” (Battersea Arts Centre, 10 October) will also be accessible via the digital programme.
Dance Umbrella DU25 runs from 2 to 30 October in various venues and online. Full programme here
For more about what’s on, do check our Autumn/Winter London Dance Previews
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