LEAP DANCE FESTIVAL Reveals 2026 Programme
Sixteen days of mesmerising performances, artist-led workshops and free family-friendly events this spring.
Leap Dance Festival returns to Liverpool City Region venues next month promising an unmissable fortnight of brilliant performances, workshops and fantastic free events for all the family.
The annual festival of dance will take place at theatres, cultural venues and in public spaces between Friday 24 April and Saturday 9 May 2026.
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Audiences can enjoy stunning new performances from some of the UK's most exciting contemporary dance companies along with a must-see programme of work from talented dancers from across the Liverpool City Region.
A series of special commissions, presented in partnership with Culture Liverpool and made possible by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, will be staged throughout the 16-day festival, including during Queer Moves – a celebration of the work of LGBTQIA+ artists.
Hundreds of young people are expected to take part in showcases and dance evenings.
And there is also the return of the hugely popular free, family-friendly programme of events and activities including Dancing at the Palm House and Dancing in the Streets.
The festival opens on Friday, 24 April when the bold and dynamic Cathy Waller Company brings its powerful new touring work You and Us to the Capstone Theatre at Liverpool Hope University's Creative Campus in Everton.
What does invisibility mean to you? You and Us asks why we hide parts of ourselves to fit in, and what it might mean to be fully seen. The extraordinary production, which is being presented as part of the annual Angel Field Festival in partnership with Liverpool Hope, features an emotionally charged dance performance against an original, pulsing soundtrack created by the MOBO-winning Lewis Wright.
Then on Saturday, 25 April, City of Liverpool College is the venue for a Youth Dance Showcase. In 2025 more than 118 young people enjoyed dance development opportunities through a day-long programme of workshops, and dance artists and industry partners are set to return to run a new series of specialist dance workshops in all disciplines for 2026.
In the evening, dance schools and youth groups from throughout the Liverpool City Region will share their work on a professional stage in a public event celebrating young talent.
Sefton Park Palm House hosts the return of a fabulous free festival event on Sunday, 26 April.
Dancing at the Palm House, which runs from 12.30pm, will see groups of all types, ages, abilities and backgrounds from across the City Region converge on Sefton Park to perform in a range of styles.
There will also be free taster sessions throughout the family-friendly day, taking place inside and outside the historic landmark, offering visitors the chance to try something new – and perhaps discover a hidden talent.
The festival continues on Tuesday, 28 April with the Schools Dance Platform where schools and colleges from the region come together at Liverpool Lighthouse in Anfield for an evening of dance performance around a central theme. For 2026 that is Dancing Through the Decades, celebrating music and dance styles from the 1920s to 2020s.
Emerging artists from across the North West will share work at the Unity Theatre on Thursday, 30 April as part of this year's Liverpool Dance Prize. The prize is part of Leap's commitment to developing upcoming talent and the ambition to make Liverpool a regional hub for dance.
Five bursaries of £750 have been awarded to help artists create a new piece of work and compete for a development grant of £1,000. Artists from the 2024 prize have gone on to present work at the Edinburgh Fringe, Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival and at Turn North West.
Recipients of the 2026 bursaries are Joseph Thomas Adamson; Zara Phillips and Natassa Argyropoulou; Hui-Hsin Lu; Aimee Gerrard, and Laura Macy.
The festival remains at the Unity Theatre on Friday, 1 May with Queer Moves which promises an electrifying bill of new Leap commissions by three LGBTQIA+ artists, all exploring queer identity.
Enjoy work by Amber Buttery and Owen Gillott which combines live performance, community participation and a dance film, and a physical theatre piece exploring the impact of narcissistic abuse and objectification created by Rowena Gander working with director Izzie Major.
The two other special commissions being showcased as part of Leap come from artist and film-maker Tom Shennan and choreographer and dance educator Dawn Holgate.
Tom Shennan's new dance film will be accessible online throughout the festival period. Shot entirely in L8 using drones, the film features dance artist Shivaangee Agrawal who blends the contemporary with classical Indian dance Bharatantatyam to speak to the experience of living in multicultural Toxteth.
Meanwhile Dawn Holgate is working with The Dancing Queens, a community group of Global Majority women based at Toxteth's Caribbean Centre, integrating dance, live song and embodied storytelling to explore radical Black joy, resilience and collective care, alongside powerful narratives of womanhood.
Holgate's piece will be presented as a curtain raiser at the Unity Theatre on Saturday, 2 May when Toussaint to Move opens the second week of the festival with Windows of Displacement.
Choreographed and performed by award-winning interdisciplinary performer and maker Akeim Toussaint Buck, Windows of Displacement is an autobiographical solo blending dance, song and spoken word to explore personal and global narratives, ancestral memory and the increasingly urgent shifting politics surrounding the movement of people.
There will be Dancing in the Streets at Liverpool ONE on Bank Holiday Monday, 4 May with the chance to enjoy free outdoor performances and workshops from the region's leading dance artists.
The acclaimed Phoenix Dance Theatre presents Interplay at Liverpool Playhouse on Friday, 8 May. The powerful mixed bill will showcase compelling work by internationally renowned choreographers which explores themes of duality and the fusion of distinct artistic voices.
Featuring duet and ensemble works, each piece offers a bold and dynamic interplay between contrasting perspectives and celebrating the beauty of shared vision and artistic exchange.
Meanwhile Knowsley artists enact a Shakespeare North Takeover at the Prescot playhouse on Saturday, 9 May.
Experience the indoor and outdoor spaces of the award-winning Prospero Place venue like never before in a day of immersive and experimental performances and film screenings from Knowsley's most exciting dance artists and companies. There will also be the chance to take part in free activities during the day.
And the festival comes to a close at Shakespeare North with the unmissable Leap 2026 Big Burlesque Cabaret.
Revel in a world of raucous entertainment as Leap throws the ultimate party night on the stunning Cockpit Theatre stage featuring burlesque, cabaret, circus and dance. The line-up includes Cadbury Parfait, The Stiletto Prince, Velma Von Bon Bon and more.
Leap Dance Festival is organised and presented by Chaos Arts CIC and is Liverpool City Region's leading dance event, showcasing the work of local artists, community groups and young people as well as bringing some of the most exciting and groundbreaking work from national and international dance organisations to the city.
The festival also coincides with the International Day of Dance which this year takes place on Wednesday, 29 April.
Since Leap was relaunched in 2024 – following a five-year hiatus - it has commissioned 35 new dance works including five films and supported the work of seven early careers artists. A total of 1,438 people took an active part in Leap in 2024 and 2025, and last year's event attracted audiences of almost 73,000 through live and digital engagement.
Leap Dance Festival Director Paul Doyle said: “This year Leap Dance Festival is packed with performances by some of the most exciting artists in the UK. But as well as presenting national touring shows, we're committed to supporting the development of new work and raising the profile of local artists across the region and beyond.
“This includes supporting the next generation of talent by providing grants to five emerging artists through the Liverpool Dance Prize, as well as commissioning new work from four established artists thanks to our partnership with Culture Liverpool.
“Since Leap's return in 2024, we've commissioned 27 new works in collaboration with Culture Liverpool, from community groups to professional artists. This year, as a queer-led organisation, we're particularly proud to be commissioning work by three LGBTQIA+ artists for our Queer Moves event at the Unity Theatre.”
For more details on Leap visit www.leapfestival.co.uk.
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