Dance Umbrella announces 2025 Festival programme

Dance Umbrella, London’s annual international dance festival, is delighted to announce the full 2025 festival programme taking place across London, and online from 2 – 31 October 2025.

This year, the Festival will have a limited number of £10 tickets available at every show. It is hoped that this will help open up the Festival to more people and make it easier to explore more of the programme.

LIVE PROGRAMME
Announced today, Brazilian collaborators Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira present the world premiere of Repertório N.1 taking place at a venue to be announced (17 & 18 Oct).
Repertório N.1 is the final piece of a trilogy by the Brazilian artists Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira. The powerful series of performances challenges the idea of generalised violence while seeking new ways to understand and represent global majority lived experiences. Drawing on postcolonial, gender and race studies, the Repertório trilogy interrogates the mechanisms of brutality and attempts to dismantle them. The performance explores how the body – and all it carries – can develop its own form of self-defence. By setting this choreographic repertoire of self-defence in motion, Pontes and Ferreira propose strategies of resistance – using the body to provoke thought and imagination, performing violence without perpetuating it.

A day of dance workshops and events in collaboration with CASA Festival will take over Brixton House as part of the venue’s UPRISING festival marking 40 years since the 85 Brixton uprisings.

Tjimur Dance Theatre bring bulabulay mun?/how are you? (21 & 22 Oct), their UK premiere to The Place. This visually arresting and deeply moving production tells the story of a community suddenly confronted by the immense power of wind and waves, awakening a heightened awareness of how far they have drifted from nature. Tjimur Dance Theatre is Taiwan’s premier contemporary dance company dedicated to exploring and expressing the identity of the indigenous Paiwan people. Choreographed by Baru Madiljin, bulabulay mun? / how are you? draws on the historic Mudan shipwreck incident of 1874 – a traumatic chapter in Taiwanese history, to reflect on the relationship between human actions and their unforeseen consequences.

Credit Andreas Simopoulos for Onassis Stegi

Cypriot performer Elena Antoniou presents LANDSCAPE (Shoreditch Town Hall 24 & 25 Oct) a bold and intimate solo that transforms the body into a living stage. Oscillating between pleasure and pain, LANDSCAPE invites us into a world where self-objectification becomes a radical act. Antoniou hypersexualises her form while holding space for trauma, teasing the edges of performance and provocation. The result is a dance that dares to confront the politics of looking — and being looked at. Antoniou has presented her work across Europe, collaborating with renowned institutions including Onassis Stegi and the Marina Abramović Institute. Her practice spans choreography, performance and movement direction, and she continues to push boundaries with internationally acclaimed artist Maria Hassabi. With LANDSCAPE, she delivers a performance that is both deeply personal and defiantly political — a vital new voice on the contemporary dance stage.

S/Z Rye Green Berry

This year, Dance Umbrella also presents the Dance Umbrella Film Series: Sunday Shorts (12 Oct) which will run in the Barbican Cinema. It is a public film screening programmed by international curators HSEIH I-Hsuan and Emily Shin-Jie Lee who will draw on their global perspective for Dance Umbrella Festival 2025. The programme will be followed by a Q&A with curator Emily Shin-Jie Lee and guests.

Credit Andrea Peña

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED
Opening the festival at Sadler’s Wells East this year is BOGOTÁ (2 & 3 Oct). Visceral, transgressive and magnetic, Andrea Peña & Artists’ UK debut production constructs a brutalist landscape out of choreography inspired by Colombia’s political and spiritual heritage. With striking intensity, nine performers chronicle transformations between chaos and rebirth, incarnating the tensions of ever-unfolding and turbulent histories. This hybrid work employs the company’s trademark use of movement as a vehicle for storytelling, embarking on an esoteric journey through a universe charged with magical realism. It uncovers passageways to transcendence, honouring the rebellion of deviant bodies and paying tribute to resilience within the post-colonial era.

Change Tempo (8 & 9 Oct) heads to the Barbican in 2025 to introduce London audiences to two distinctive artists set to make their mark, while challenging expectations of dance. This year’s dynamic pairing of artists are known for pushing the boundaries of their forms. In Siren Dance, Stockholm-based Australian artist and Cullberg dancer Lilian Steiner plays with seduction, illusion and shifting truths. A siren beckons – her invitation laced with both desire and deception. As the dance unfolds, it morphs and adapts, slipping between honesty and artifice, drawing the audience into its magnetic pull. Siren Dance is a mesmerising exploration of power, transformation and the fine line between authenticity and disguise. Spanish flamenco dancer and actor María del Mar Suárez/La Chachi’s Random Taranto turns the everyday into something extraordinary. Two women, Suárez and singer Lola Delores, share a moment – eating sunflower seeds, exchanging glances – until flamenco erupts, raw and electric. Stripped back to voice and movement, this take on the Taranto form pulses with improvisation, irreverence and unexpected humour. The result is a strikingly intimate yet playful reimagining of tradition, where dance and song intertwine in unpredictable ways.

Credit Vincent Pontet

Also at the Barbican this year is Gesualdo Passione (16 Oct), which blends a cappella singing with expressive movement. Choreographed by Amala Dianor, Les Arts Florissants‘ Gesualdo Passione is a modern creation inspired by 17th century composer Carlo Gesualdo’s work, conducted by Paul Agnew.  In this story of suffering and love, the body is central. Amala Dianor’s choreography seamlessly blends classical, modern and hip hop movement vocabularies, mirroring the contrast within the music. Six singers from Les Arts Florissants and four dancers from Compagnie Amala Dianor unite past and present in this unique stage creation.  Amala returns to the festival following the critically acclaimed Emaphakathini, commissioned by South African company Via Katlehong in 2023 at Sadler’s Wells.

Credit Sarah Weal

ARTIST ENCOUNTERS
Artist Encounters is a talk with an internationally renowned guest artist, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate. This year, the event takes place at Shakespeare’s Globe (11 Oct), in the atmospheric setting of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse with choreographer and director Ben Duke. Ben is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking work both as an individual and with his company Lost Dog.

In this lecture demonstration, Making Text Move he will be joined by his collaborators to show live examples of his process and practice which seamlessly blends literature, theatre and dance to tell engaging stories.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Dance Umbrella will also host panel discussions this year. Firstly Sites of Meaning: Art, Identity and the Global City at Studio Wayne McGregor (3 October). A panel of internationally acclaimed artists, artistic directors and curators explore how art shapes – and is shaped by – the cities we inhabit.

At Battersea Arts Centre a panel of working-class artists, producers and changemakers will unpack how class shapes opportunity, access and visibility in the arts in Arts & Class (10 Oct).

STUDIO SESSIONS
Studio Sessions is a presenter programme, introducing dance artists based in England to promoters from the UK and abroad, with the ambition of brokering new relationships for international co-commissioning and future touring. Studio Sessions is a collaboration between Dance Umbrella and FABRIC International that has been running since 2018, this year it takes place at Sadler’s Wells East (11 Oct). Four companies, Lost Dog, Yinka Esi Graves & Poliana Lima, Sung-Im Her and BULLYACHE will be sharing works-in-progress of new performances, presented in partnership with Sadler’s Wells.

DIGITAL PROGRAMME
For the 2025 Festival, Dance Umbrella has produced and curated a selection of innovative dance films with this year’s festival artists, international curations and podcast episodes. If you can’t be there in person, the Digital Pass is a great way to experience the festival from wherever you are in the world. Additionally this year, Digital Pass holders will be able access the content for an extra month at no extra charge.

Now in its sixth year, this edition of Choreographer’s Cut features legendary South African artist Vincent Mantsoe. Men-Jaro, meaning “friendship” in township slang, marked a turning point in Mantsoe’s choreographic journey. Fusing traditional African steps and ritual with contemporary expression, it celebrates the deep physical, emotional and spiritual ties between people and cultures. Accompanied by live, indigenous music and vocal performance, Men-Jaro creates a communal space where rhythm becomes connection and dance becomes dialogue. Filmed at IRIE! Dance Theatre (London, UK), this intimate reflection offers fresh insight into a work that redefined Mantsoe’s choreographic language. Nearly two decades on since its presentation at Dance Umbrella in 2006, Men-Jaro continues to resonate with its message of connection, humanity and the power of shared rhythm.

Credit Leon Benoit

6:58: MANIFESTO is a striking choreographic triptych by Montreal based Colombian artist Andrea Peña that interrogates the boundaries between the artificial and the human. This award-winning film delves through three distinct tableaux, five dancers, a DJ and an opera singer navigating the seductive constructs of artificiality that shape contemporary life. From an algorithm-driven improvisation dictated by Siri to an apocalyptic waltz laced with operatic vocals, and finally a rave-inspired exploration of collective euphoria, the work confronts the invisible forces that mediate our bodies, minds and desires.

With mechanical precision and emotional resonance, 6.58: MANIFESTO is both a visual and philosophical provocation – an evocative digital experience questioning what it means to be human in a post-industrial, hyper-technological world.

Amala Dianor Company & Grégoire Korganow present Nioun Rec, which is a captivating film blending urban, contemporary and African dance styles amidst a striking architectural setting. Part of Dianor’s Ciné-Danse series, this film was created in 2021 and marked the start of a creative partnership with visual artist Grégoire Korganow.

Filmed on location in southern Taiwan, bulabulay mun? (how are you?) is a visually striking, site-specific film from Tjimur Dance Theatre, the country’s premier contemporary dance company dedicated to expressing the identity of the indigenous Paiwan people. Rooted in the historic Mudan shipwreck incident of 1874, this powerful work draws on traditional Mudan songs, ancient Paiwan ballads and evocative movement to revive ancestral memory. Blending the energy of professional dancers with the presence of local residents, the film embodies the strength of community and the spirit of place.

Choreographed by Baru MADILJIN, bulabulay mun? unfolds across dramatic coastal landscapes, echoing the production’s central themes of loss, resilience and elemental connection. The wind, sea and mountains are not just backdrops, they are witness and participant in this poignant meditation on history, nature and the enduring will to remember.

Somewhere Beyond Right and Wrong, There is a Garden. I Will Meet You There - CHEN Yin-Ju

International curators HSEIH I-Hsuan and Emily Shin-Jie Lee bring their borderless curatorial voice to this year’s Digital Pass with a specially selected collection of films, in Between Breath & Lens. This curated series mirrors the sensibility of their in-cinema programme at the Barbican, offering audiences a chance to encounter movement in its most expansive and evocative forms – from the dance of memory and time to the choreography of image and feeling. Many of the featured works highlight artists and filmmakers from Taiwan, whose practices move between the corporeal and the cinematic, drawing out resonances of presence, absence and the in-between.

Ghostly Labor - La-Mezcla

Also available is Dance in Focus: Curation from London International Screen Dance Festival. Dance in Focus features a selection of some of the most inventive and curious short films from around the world, curated by independent choreographer and London International Screen Dance Festival director, Charles Linehan.

Finally, Dr Laura Griffiths and Dr Rachel Krische host a thought-provoking podcast series that dives into how dance can drive social mobility in the UK. Several episodes have been selected to be exclusively available with the Dance Umbrella Digital Pass, offering rich, real-life insights into the potential for dance to transcend and work across class distinctions. Blending personal narrative with bi-neural sound and creative documentation, Dancing Class places dance centre stage in the conversation around class, opportunity and cultural value.

Dance Umbrella Festival 2025 is supported by Backstage Trust.