Dance Umbrella Festival 2017 Opens Today with A Spectacular Performance in Front of Battersea Power Station

Dance Umbrella Festival 2017 opens today with a visually stunning, hold-your-breath spectacle as dancer Satchie Noro performs a mesmerising duet with a 40ft shipping container on the banks of the river Thames outside the iconic Battersea Power Station.

Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of origami and created by Paris-based duo Satchie Noro and Silvain Ohl this free outdoor performance will dramatically transform the London cityscape in five locations between 11 and 15 October: Battersea Power Station, Peninsula Square in North Greenwich, Artillery Square in Woolwich, The Queen's Gardens in Croydon and Trinity Buoy Wharf.

The opening performances of Origami take place today at 1.30pm & 7.30pm at Battersea Power Station's Circus West Village, the first phase of the regeneration.

New images of Origami at Circus West Village, Battersea Power Station are available to download here.

Dance Umbrella is London's leading festival of international dance featuring some of the world's most exciting and innovative dance visionaries. The festival runs across London from 11 - 28 October. For tickets and full details please visit www.danceumbrella.co.uk.

OTHER FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE

• Olivier nominated Rocío Molina returns with Fallen From Heaven (Caída del Cielo) an explosive new work about womanhood.
  
• Charlotte Spencer Projects re-imagine our relationship with disused urban spaces in Is this a Waste Land? an outdoor interactive performance in Silvertown Quays, East London.
  
• Guest programmer Freddie Opoku-Addaie curates a festival-within-a-festival in Out of the System; a vibrant night of international dance and live music.
  
• Dance innovator Rachid Ouramdane's compelling work TORDRE gives an intensely physical portrait of two captivating performers.

• Leading choreographers - Lucinda Childs, Maguy Marin and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker - create three contrasting responses to Beethoven's Grande Fugue op. 133 for Lyon Opera Ballet's Trois Grandes Fugues.
  
• Inspired by American artist Sol Lewitt the charming and inventive DOT by Spanish company Cia Maduixa is full of wonder for young audiences.
  
• South Korea's celebrated choreographer Eun-Me Ahn comes to London with psychedelic visual feast Let Me Change Your Name.

• Dance Umbrella takes over Shoreditch Town Hall for a night of dance, poetry and film from Lisbeth Gruwez, Julie Cunningham, Vanessa Kisuule and Charles Linehan

• Liz Lerman launches the new Dance Umbrella Lecture series with a discussion about how we watch dance and theatre differently, followed by a Q&A led by Steven Hoggett. Plus a multitude of extra events, talks and screenings throughout festival 2017.

Photo credit: Johnny Stephens