Spectacular Dance to Takeover The Southbank Centre’s Iconic Site

The Southbank Centre has announced an exciting dance programme. The programme brings together different artforms across the Summer, taking over the 11-acre site by the River Thames with Dance Your Way Home, followed by the UK Premiere of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon. 

• Fusing together dance, gigs, visual arts and poetry, Dance Your Way Home, co-curated by Emma Warren takes over the site with a seismic programme celebrating all the ways that dance connects us all (23 Jul - 25 Aug).
• Ensuring the Southbank Centre is a home for everyone, the programme includes dozens of free events on a brand new dancefloor on the Riverside Terrace including Grief Rave (3 Aug) and Heart n Soul's Make Yourself! Be Yourself! (22 Aug).
• Rambert and Ballet national de Marseille, direction (LA)HORDE  join forces to transform the entire Royal Festival Hall and wider site into a spectacular, large-scale dance experience with the UK Premiere of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon (3 - 6 Sep).

Inspired by the stories and spirit of Emma Warren's book of the same name, Dance Your Way Home is a celebration of the dance floors that have brought people together. Curated in collaboration with Emma Warren, the multi-artform programme explores what happens when communities get moving, wherever the dance floor may be - from our kitchens to the street.

Born out of the Festival of Britain in 1951, the Southbank Centre has always provided a social space to ensure that anyone and everyone can meet and be together, with members of the public often using its open foyer spaces to practice their dance moves. With 50% of the Southbank Centre's programming free, dozens of free events will take place across the site for all ages.

Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home and co-curator of the Dance Your Way Home programme said, "Dance Your Way Home is rooted in the idea that moving to music, together, is powerful on an individual and collective level. The dance we're celebrating this summer isn't about being good at dancing. It's about bringing the moves you have, celebrating all kinds of dancefloors, whether that's a kitchen disco, partner dancing, or a late night rave-up. We'll make sure there's space for the hesitant dancers, too.”

Highlights include: 

• Basel-based choreographer Jeremy Nedd's London debut From rock to rock, a piece featuring five performers examining the Milly Rock, a viral dance inspired by the rapper 2 Milly (23 & 24 Jul, QEH). 
• Young DJs from displaced and underrepresented backgrounds celebrate music's ability to bring people together in Our Heartbeats: Unity in Motion (every Thur, 31 Jul - 21 Aug, Riverside Terrace). 
• Fuse ODG celebrate the anniversary of dance anthem ‘Azonto' with special guests in the Royal Festival Hall (27 Jul).
• In the talks programme Caleb Femi & Jordan Stephens reflect on the life-affirming freedom of the party in a special talk On the Dance Floor (25 Jul), Femi Koleoso and Emma Warren discuss how music, dance and social spaces unite everyone (8 Aug), and Poets on the Dancefloor spotlights poetry that draws from and celebrates music and movement (24 Jul).
• Grief Rave invites everyone to shake out their day, to dedicate a song to someone or something they may be missing – from a personal bereavement to a breakup or simply releasing some political rage, pain or fury  (3 Aug, Riverside Terrace).
• A unique chance to watch the classic film Babylon with live music followed by a conversation with composer Dennis Bovell, whose experiences partly inspired it (26 Jul, QEH).
• Drawing on Emma Warren's dual citizenship, the programme presents an Irish strand featuring a new commission by Dublin based street artist Aches celebrating the public's use of the site for dance and rehearsal, and a free Hooley in the Kitchen (16 Aug, Riverside Terrace).
• Art brings the site alive with a new dancefloor by Beyond the Box and Qudus St. Patrick. A mini disco – the Fandangoe Discoteca dancefloor - will be on site and free to use.
• Other highlights include a celebration of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian dance in Urban Ritual: From Havana to Bahia, Ásrún Magnúsdóttir's Listening Party, Folk Dance: For and of the People, Free Party: A Folk History, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Kinetika Bloco and Tomorrow's Warriors.

Rambert and Ballet national de Marseille, direction (LA)HORDE join forces to transform the entire Royal Festival Hall and wider site with the UK Premiere of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon(3 - 6 Sep). 

‘We should have never walked on the moon' is a quote borrowed from Gene Kelly, who was reported to have said it to Buzz Aldrin. Featuring a cast of 50, including dancers from both companies, DJs and a limousine, this ambitious project explores the role of the body in a post-internet age of infinite information, communication and expression. It subtly considers the dominance of mainstream American culture and how movement becomes a force of homogenisation. 

Audiences are invited to roam freely around the entire Royal Festival Hall building and wider Southbank Centre site at their own pace as performances and digital works take place throughout the evening. Artists will perform in the Royal Festival Hall auditorium with the audience watching from the stage, as well as in unusual spaces, including backstage areas in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Undercroft and the Southbank Centre's outdoor terraces. 
This large-scale project continues the Southbank Centre's collaborative relationship with the two powerhouse dance companies, and further demonstrates their joint commitment to surprise and inspire London audiences.

Choreography includes works by (LA)HORDE, Rambert's Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer, Lucinda Childs, Cécilia Bengolea & François Chaignaud, and Oona Doherty. 
This project is generously supported by Cockayne - Grants for the Arts.

Benoit Swan Pouffer, Artistic Director of Rambert said, “We're very excited to continue our collaboration with (LA)HORDE and the Southbank Centre with this innovative reimagining of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon; a coming together of artistic minds and talents. As audiences follow their instincts and create their own unique experiences walking through the different spaces of the Southbank Centre, this immersive dance event promises to be as exciting as it is unexpected.”