Dance Umbrella Announces Digital Programme for 2021 Hybrid Festival

Following the announcement of the in-person live programme for 2021, Dance Umbrella, London's annual international dance festival has today announced its digital programme of performances, conversations, films and discussions.

London Battle (conceived and created by Jade Hackett) brings together some of the most exciting talent from London's hip-hop dance scene in a celebration of the capital's globally renowned dance and music culture. As a DJ plays a selection of the UK's finest beats, including some by Mikey J Asante, witness dancers going head-to-head in a diverse range of styles to create a thrilling digital dance performance. Get up front, experience the vibe and feel the energy of London's world class battling.

In Give Them Their Flowers, join performer, actress and choreographer Jade Hackett as she shines a spotlight on five artists who have and continue to make significant contributions to the dance world today: Ash Mukherjee, Kev 'Renegade' Gopie, Liza Vallance, Phillip Chbeeb and Shelley Maxwell. This series of intimate in-conversations brings together artists to discuss their work and their path in contemporary creative practice.

SAY: AF (And Friends) is a dance film collaboration, produced by Dance Umbrella, between dance artists Sarah Golding and Yukiko Masui and an exciting range of music artist collaborators. Merging dance influences to create their own unique dance style, this film also introduces reggae influenced artist Casey Pearl & the band; UK beatbox champion MC Zani; the unapologetic and raw Juliana Yazbeck; and South Africa's hottest new duo Tina Redmxn & L Tune 'Chillin'. This film is part of SAY's ongoing project "the album", created with a selection of music artists.

Choreographer's Cut returns for 2021 as we invite audiences to step inside the mind of a choreographer with three leading artists giving in-depth commentaries on a previous work. Don't miss this unique opportunity to go behind the scenes with Nora Chipaumire, Claire Cunningham and Eddie Ladd as they discuss their creative process with Dance Umbrella's Artistic Director and Chief Executive Freddie Opoku-Addaie.

Articles is two specially commissioned editorials from writer, director, and performer Sonny Nwachukwu and performer, actress and choreographer Jade Hackett.

Dance Umbrella presents the world premiere of the filmed version of Dimitris Papaioannou's iconic production NOWHERE, originally commissioned by the Greek National Theater. NOWHERE was originally conceived as a site-specific project, where the space itself was choreographed by programming the new stage mechanisms. A group of humans confronted the spatial challenges created, measuring space with their bodies. A meditation on the very nature of theatre, NOWHERE explores the concept of performance as a machine that mirrors human life.

The filmed version of the central scene (dedicated to the memory of Pina Bausch who had just passed away) was published 7 years ago in June 2014, and went viral with over 2.5 million views.

Created, filmed, and edited by Dimitris Papaioannou, NOWHERE is a co-commission of the New Vision Arts Festival (Hong Kong, China) and Dance Umbrella Festival (London, United Kingdom).

Finally audiences can join Dance Umbrella for a topical Panel Discussion exploring how freelance arts professionals are continuing to adapt within the current climate,hosted and curated by Valerie Ebuwa

For 2021, Dance Umbrella is launching a brand new Digital Pass which will give audiences exclusive access to all the content available via danceumbrella.co.uk. The pass is Pay What You Can (minimum £5) and gives audiences access to all digital content within this year's festival. With content being released throughout the festival, once live, all content will be available on demand until 24th October.

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