Things To Do

Jason Allen 09/10/23


Dance Umbrella

Dance Umbrella is opening once more.

For those who haven’t been keeping a keen finger on the pulse of the international contemporary dance festival scene over the last few years, Dance Umbrella is an international contemporary dance festival. It actually started way back in 1978, and since then it’s had over a million punters soaking up bleeding-edge choreography performed by hundreds of dancers from dozens of countries. It’s a genuinely well-run operation, and their standards are extremely high.

Dance Umbrella

This year’s festival takes place throughout almost the entire month of October (6th-31st) in venues across the capital. Some of the shows we can look forward to include seeing dancer Ioanna Paraskevopoulou turn the Pit at The Barbican into a cinematic soundscape, wherein she’ll use props like umbrellas, plungers and coconut shells to mimic the work of a movie foley artist – or Xenia Aidonopoulou, who’ll put on a dance act in the air above the stage at the Watermans Arts Centre for Skydiver.

Dance Umbrella

And that’s just the in-person stuff. Thanks to the pandemic, the festival has also developed a fairly sophisticated digital programme too, which this year involves both short films and live performances. They’ve described one show as a look into one of the most exciting minds in contemporary dance, in Dancer Of The Year.

All told, it’s a very well choreographed event.

 

NOTE: Dance Umbrella is set to run from October 6th-31st in venues across London. You can get tickets, and find out more at their website right here


Like the look of this? Check out the best things to do in London right now…