THE DANCE FLOOR IS BLACK, Matthew Bourne's THE CAR MAN to Highlight Sadler's Wells August

East Bank's The Music is Black Festival returns to Sadler's Wells East this August with another weekend of The Dance Floor is Black, a series of specially programmed events celebrating the rich history and vibrant culture of social dance. Across Saturday 22 – Sunday 23 August, the third weekend is curated under the theme of Queer Frequencies and will celebrate the sound, legacy and future of Black Queer music culture.

On the Saturday, Zinzi Minott's Together We Felt The Bass responds to this theme with an evening of dance, poetry and sound art; collaborators for this evening include the DJ GIN_, and poet and sound artist Remi Graves. On the Sunday, Queer carnival collective Faggamuffin Bloc Party will host a full-day pre-carnival party with DJs, MCs and dancers.

PlayLab Day Festival takes place on Friday 21 August on The Dance Floor - in the foyer of Sadler's Wells East - a non-ticketed free event for young children aged 2-5. It is the culmination of the PlayLab Artist Development Programme, a six-week programme led by choreographer Takeshi Matsumoto which supports artists to create new ideas for dance works for young audiences. The PlayLab Day Festival will showcase early-stage ideas from the participating artists, presented for audiences alongside extra activities, including face painting and arts & crafts.

At Sadler's Wells Theatre, Matthew Bourne's award-winning The Car Man continues; the iconic production is loosely based on Bizet's opera with its thrilling and instantly recognisable score (Tuesday 28 July - Saturday 29 August). 

Throughout August, the Sadler's Wells Learning and Engagement team will be running a series of workshops for families with children under 11 as part of Newham Libraries' summer programme. The sessions explore rhythm, movement and music through creative dance activity, more information here: Events & Bookings | Newham Libraries

Currently on Digital Stage  

Now available on Digital Stage are three films released as part of The Floor is Yours commission series, which premiered at Dance Digital film festival in June. After a public call out in 2025, three artists were selected to create a short dance film which explores how movement can appear in everyday life and unexpected places.

Nepenthe is a surreal dance film exploring how movement can reclaim memory. Told entirely through dance, the film follows two women drifting through memories frozen in time as they attempt to rewrite the emotional past from a place of empowerment. Inspired by the mythical Greek remedy said to soften sorrow, Nepenthe explores dance as survival, release and reinvention, tracing how female friendship and chosen family can help reshape the stories that once defined us.

Available to watch for free here: https://www.sadlerswells.com/digital-stage/nepenthe/

HOLD takes JG Ballard's The Drowned World as its starting point. In the film two strangers navigate a submerged landscape, whilst sharing a remnant from a world lost.

Available to watch for free here: https://www.sadlerswells.com/digital-stage/hold/

Más Glow is a dance film which speaks to the preconceived notions of beauty, the rules imposed on the female body and the power in taking up space. As gestures unravel inside a nail salon and dance begins to shift towards monstruous movement, four women break the rules of how they are expected to behave.

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