Dance Umbrella Family Weekend Netherlands / UK de Stilte / Hackney Showroom

de Stilte is a professional dance company based in the Southern region of The Netherlands, that focuses entirely on developing productions and performing for children. They perform hundreds of shows every year, for both the public and for schools. Education is an integral part of de Stilte’s activities. Since the foundation in 1994, de Stilte has expanded to become the most attended youth theatre producer in The Netherlands.

de Stilte wants to take as many children as possible out of the everyday world and into the abstract world of the senses, encouraging children to tell their own story using the boundless limit of the imagination. They believe that imagination pushes boundaries: by becoming part of the story, by experiencing it and using your imagination, your world becomes larger and more familiar. Based on that philosophy, founder and artistic director Jack Timmermans works with academically trained dancers to produce ambitious shows for young and old.

Hackney Showroom is a development space for experimental theatre artists and makers of award-winning live performances. They support non-mainstream theatre makers, working across a range of performance disciplines to create new work for the stage. They work with some of the most experimental voices in the UK, offering them a rigorous approach to developing their practice, paving the way for artists to make astonishing and memorable work.

Hackney Showroom delivers year-round free creative and cultural projects for participants from babies to elders from their Kings Crescent Estate base.

Cabbage the Clown
Sometimes comedic, sometimes profound, Cabbage the Clown is a two-time competition winning tragic fool, doomed to live life in an eternal state of catastrophic despair. She is the human expression of how it feels to step in a puddle of mystery wetness when you’re walking around the house in your socks.

DJ Emilia Harmony
DJ Emilia Harmony takes you an extraordinary dancing adventure. A long time resident of Hackney Showroom’s Disco Loco & Easy Rollerz, Emilia’s joyful, eclectic mix of reggae, funk, disco, afro, latin & beyond, offers magical vibrations to make your spirits soar. See you on the dance floor!

MC Chu-i
DJ and MC Chu-i is a 90s pioneer turned international sensation, seamlessly blends genres and crafts immersive musical journeys. With a global legacy, Chu-i continues to inspire, inviting audiences worldwide to experience the timeless magic of his eclectic beats and infectious hosting abilities.

Photo: Wunmi Onibudo

Mr IPM
Azara Meghie is a multidisciplinary artist specialising in breakdance, poetry and theatre. She’ll be performing her drag king act Mr IPM – an East End bboy. Recent theatre credits include I, Joan at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Photo: Momentos Photos

Symoné
Symoné is Guinness World Record-holding interdisciplinary circus artist, creative director, cabaret, and performance artist, with British and American roots. Symoné’s physical practice has a focus on challenging traditional circus and pushing the boundaries of what circus is. Since embarking on her artistic journey in 2016, Symoné has taken her act to international stages, leaving an indelible mark in 10 different countries, from the United States and the West End to India.

Reverend Milo Speedwagon
If you’re looking for a smooth, seamless and stylistically beige journey across the sonic tundra you’ll be disappointed. However, if you’re prepared to free your mind and leap around the genres or hug that dance-floor (yeah that one over there) then the guy who, without exception, is the only chap to use the word mega without you wanting to clock him is your man: kraut, funk,afro, chill, acid house music without a home and all else in-between. Catch Reverend Milo Speedwagon in fields and reputable discotheques throughout the land.