Tracy Gentles

2020 marks the 42nd year of Dance Umbrella and Emma Gladstone's 7th and final year as Artistic Director and Chief Executive for the organisation before she will step down.

New strategic arts initiative Something to Aim For, which supports artists with lived experience of discrimination creating socially engaged work, has announced its first season including works from international cabaret icon Le Gateau Chocolat and radical performance artist FK Alexander. From self-destruction to self-expression, from isolation to austerity, the artists tackle pressing social issues with their own distinctive performance styles including cabaret, performance art and grime and rap.

The Sick of the Fringe: Care & Destruction announce a line-up of performance and discussion that interrogates health in all its forms. The festival launches a year-long programme of work from unheard voices and perspectives. Artists including Tania El Khoury, Le Gateau Chocolat, Travis Alabanza, Lanre Malaolu, Lois Weaver, Laurence Clarke and HighRise Theatre with new and returning work. Live theatre, music, dance, comedy, discussion and film presented at three venues across three days.

In spite of Winter Storm Hercules, over 300 well-wishers filled La MaMa's La Galleria, 6 East 1st Street, on Friday, January 3 for the opening of 'Desperate Archives' by Split Britches, the legendary lesbian performance troupe. 'Desperate Archives' is a gallery exhibition in which Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches re-purpose their own archival material from the last 20 years to explore the issues of having, holding, and letting go. Scroll down for photos from the opening!