#contemporary-dance

#contemporary-dance

Easy to fool the eye, then, but is it equally easy to keep it alert and interested? That's what I asked myself as I sat in a sadly half-empty Sadler's Wells East, fighting a wave of somnolence partly induced by Elon Höglund's music, a monotonous, repetitive combination of muffled beats and gurgling. Much of what was happening before my eyes, if not exactly breakin' or street dance as we know it, was ingenious enough:

Berlin's avant-garde artistic scene is forever enriched by the mesmerising performance work, DUNST, crafted by the dynamic duo Marie Zechiel and Elodie Carstensen. The piece premiered at the esteemed LOST Art Festival 2025. This stunning piece transports us into a realm where body, space, and atmosphere converge in an unforgettable experience. Set against the backdrop of Guillaume Cousin's monumental smoke-ring installation within the industrial expanse of the Kolbenhutte, DUNST unfolds a tapestry of movement that captivates the senses.

At the core of Tate Modern's exhibition Theatre Picasso, opening this week, is a painting that Picasso esteemed more highly even than Guernica (1937). Picasso told Roland Penrose that he much preferred The Three Dancers (1925) to his anti-fascist opus, because it is "a real painting-a painting in itself without any outside considerations". Tate is marking the painting's 100th anniversary with a show that includes its entire Picasso collection as well as major loans, but with a fresh perspective courtesy of its staging by the artist Wu Tsang and the writer and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca. By inviting contributions from contemporary dancers and choreographers, the duo will open up fresh interpretations of a masterpiece that has already proved inexhaustibly fascinating.

Candle-lit circular corridors dotted with quirky props, distressed plaster walls and surely the most stylish bar in London add to the very special atmosphere of its 195-seater auditorium raked so that every sight line is unimpeded, and a smaller studio space. Taken together, all this creates the perfect setting for veteran dancer/choreographer Russell Maliphant's latest strand of work: small-scale, intense, intimate.

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.

The evening began as the audience filled their seats, a DJ booth with glowing, orange lights visible in the darkness. A dark, shadowy figure appeared behind white fabric hung across the stage. As music created by the live DJ sounded, the figure moved a glowing orb. It played with depth of shadow until morphing into two distinct figures. The delicate electronica soundscape matched the dark whimsy of the scene, indicating a moist forest atmosphere.

With acrobatic finesse, the figures in Artez's large-scale murals interpret the boundaries of the walls themselves through contemporary dance and moments of repose.

The new ballet, Quadrophenia, offers a fresh orchestral lens to Pete Townshend's timeless rock opera, enhancing its emotional depth and narrative richness.

The DUMBO Dance Festival provides a platform for over 400 performing artists to showcase their work while offering New York audiences access to an extraordinary range of excellent and visionary choreography at an affordable price.

When I first came into contact with hip hop ... it was a very empowering time and moment,... at the age of 26 after my classical training, I felt compelled to reach back and connect to that part of me I left behind in Los Angeles.