Intoxicating expression and pulsating rhythms combine as the award-winning South African dance company Via Katlehong returns to Dance Umbrella, to debut on Sadler’s Wells stage.

Bringing together choreography from two sought-after dance creatives, Via Injabulo is a celebration of global movement styles.

Mixing house dance and top rock with pantsula, a South African township dance, Marco da Silva Ferreira’s (Portugal) førm inførms examines the idea of collective identity. In Emaphakathini, Amala Dianor (Senegal/France) seeks to break down borders with a feast of rousing beats from live on-stage DJing, drawing on traditional dance techniques to explore the individual personalities within the Via Katlehong company.

Intoxicating expression and pulsating rhythms combine as the award-winning South African dance company Via Katlehong returns to Dance Umbrella, to debut on Sadler’s Wells stage.

Bringing together choreography from two sought-after dance creatives, Via Injabulo is a celebration of global movement styles.

Mixing house dance and top rock with pantsula, a South African township dance, Marco da Silva Ferreira’s (Portugal) førm inførms examines the idea of collective identity. In Emaphakathini, Amala Dianor (Senegal/France) seeks to break down borders with a feast of rousing beats from live on-stage DJing, drawing on traditional dance techniques to explore the individual personalities within the Via Katlehong company.

One Drop, a new performance by Sonya Lindfors & working group, is a speculative summoning, a decolonial dream, an autopsy of the Western stage and an operetta.

Defying definition and belonging to multiple categories, the work dives into the poetics and politics of relations, creating a performance that reignites connections lost or forgotten.

The title of the work refers to two separate concepts – the one drop rhythm which is a reggae style drum beat as well as to the one drop rule of the Race Separation Act, created in the United States in the early 1900s, according to which a single drop of “Black blood” made a person “Black” despite their appearance. Through its multiple starting points, the work interrogates the ghosts of the Western stage and its entanglements and relationships to capitalism, coloniality and modernity.

Award winning Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer and artistic director, Sonya Lindfors creates important work exploring power, representation and Black body politics. She is the Artistic Director and founding member of UrbanApa, an interdisciplinary and counter hegemonic arts community that offers a platform for new ideas and feminist art practices.

One Drop, a new performance by Sonya Lindfors & working group, is a speculative summoning, a decolonial dream, an autopsy of the Western stage and an operetta.

Defying definition and belonging to multiple categories, the work dives into the poetics and politics of relations, creating a performance that reignites connections lost or forgotten.

The title of the work refers to two separate concepts – the one drop rhythm which is a reggae style drum beat as well as to the one drop rule of the Race Separation Act, created in the United States in the early 1900s, according to which a single drop of “Black blood” made a person “Black” despite their appearance. Through its multiple starting points, the work interrogates the ghosts of the Western stage and its entanglements and relationships to capitalism, coloniality and modernity.

Award winning Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer and artistic director, Sonya Lindfors creates important work exploring power, representation and Black body politics. She is the Artistic Director and founding member of UrbanApa, an interdisciplinary and counter hegemonic arts community that offers a platform for new ideas and feminist art practices.

Change Tempo returns for 2023 to introduce London to two international artists whose transformational works blur the line between dance and visual art, challenging cultural biases.

SU PinWen’s performance art piece Girl’s Notes interrogates notions of gender, drawing inspiration from the traditional views set out in a Taiwanese text which directs girls in the ‘correct’ way to be a woman. Featuring live on-stage pianist LIN Mai-ke, this captivating work explores the intentions behind our everyday actions.

In Comme un symbole, French visual artist and choreographer Alexandre Fandard embodies the image of the marginalised youth, bursting onto the stage to portray a figure as despised as it is eroticised. The work subverts this stereotype in a way that is both deeply compelling and ultimately surprising.

London Battle will take over Somerset House’s iconic outdoor courtyard for a day packed with showcases, workshops, cyphers, live DJs and a big outdoor party.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip hop culture and with Breaking set to be the highlight of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Dance Umbrella and Somerset House are bringing together some of the most exciting talent from the four corners of London to go head-to head across a diverse range of styles.

Curated by choreographer Jade Hackett, who has performed with some of the UK’s leading hip hop dance theatre companies including Boy Blue and ZooNation, you will help the judges to decide which part of our global city brings the best dance flavour – north, south, east or west.

Change Tempo returns for 2023 to introduce London to two international artists whose transformational works blur the line between dance and visual art, challenging cultural biases.

SU PinWen’s performance art piece Girl’s Notes interrogates notions of gender, drawing inspiration from the traditional views set out in a Taiwanese text which directs girls in the ‘correct’ way to be a woman. Featuring live on-stage pianist LIN Mai-ke, this captivating work explores the intentions behind our everyday actions.

In Comme un symbole, French visual artist and choreographer Alexandre Fandard embodies the image of the marginalised youth, bursting onto the stage to portray a figure as despised as it is eroticised. The work subverts this stereotype in a way that is both deeply compelling and ultimately surprising.