Tickets for the full hybrid programme of DanceLive 2021 – which will see talented dancers performing indoors, outdoors and online – are now on sale.
Run by Citymoves Dance Agency SCIO, and supported by Aberdeen City Council and Creative Scotland, the festival takes place from October 14 to 17 and will welcome local as well as UK-based artists to the Granite City.
Festival acts will include Born to Protest from Just Us Dance Theatre as part of its Scotland tour, and an outdoor hip-hop work that highlights black excellence and challenges racial stigma.
DanceLive is also proud to stage the world premiere of specially commissioned outdoor work My Friends Take Care of Me from Fleur Darkin, previously artistic director at Scottish Dance Theatre.
Screen.dance will continue its partnership with Citymoves and showcase three curated programmes as well as a selection of new and recent Scottish screen dance works drawn from an open juried call.
DanceLive announces new shows
The newly announced shows are specially commissioned performances at Aberdeen Art Gallery. These will include Swan Lake Pas de deux from Aberdeen-born Greig Matthews (first soloist with Northern Ballet) and Hannah Grennell (first artist with The Royal Ballet).
Éowyn Emerald and Dancers’ critically acclaimed Your Tomorrow will also be staged and so will works from Scottish-based artists Alexandra Tsiapi and Malcolm Sutherland.
New online works include workshop and performance 3012 from previous Citymoves director Andy Howitt and John Utans which will be streamed live from Australia, as well as interactive dance and poetry collaboration Hallowed Walls from Pirita Tuisku & Thabo Mokolobate.
Indoors, outdoors and online events
Friday evening in the Anatomy Rooms will see a double bill featuring Butoh-trained artist Suzi Cunningham with Rules To Live By and Jian Yi whose work Weathervanes seeks a psychological break with time and space.
Glasgow-based company THREE60 will perform their new show The Evolution of Hip Hop on Saturday, both outside and around the city centre and later in the evening as part of a mixed bill of artists.
An exciting dance and drawing workshop, Evolving Perception from Sharon Took-Zozaya, will take place on Sunday before the dance festival concludes with Something Smashing – a music, dance and spoken word improvisation night.
Certain live events will be live-streamed and a selection of online works will be available on-demand until the end of October.
Citymoves performance groups QuickSilver, Pulse, Bring It Boys, Fusion and Step Forward will also appear throughout the festival weekend.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, audiences can linger in the Anatomy Rooms and get a drink and some food from a pop-up bar and food vendors in between shows.
Building on from last year’s event, a selection of the performances will have BSL interpretation. Details will be updated on the Citymoves website.