As Dance Umbrella 2026 festival gets underway, check out the dance on screen Digital Programme

Dance Umbrella, London’s annual international dance festival, takes place across London and online from 7 - 27 October 2026 but the Digital Programme continues to be available until the end of November. Curated by Artistic Director & Co-CEO Freddie Opoku-Addaie, the festival brings the best of international contemporary dance to London audiences.

For the 2026 Festival, Dance Umbrella has produced and curated a selection of innovative dance films with this year’s festival artists. The Digital Pass is a great way to experience the festival from wherever you are in the world, and it remains available until 30th November 2026.

Cie Omar Rajeh & Maqamat presents a deeply personal work in The Odor of Elephants After the Rain which was created in Beirut in the aftermath of the devastating explosion at the port in August 2020. Commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival, the film forms part of Rajeh’s wider artistic inquiry into memory, displacement and resilience.

A number of the films from Spaces of Encounter, specially curated by dance artist, festival director and filmmaker Omar Rajeh for Dance Umbrella Film Series Sunday Shorts will be made available to watch as part of the digital programme.

Also in the programme is director Miguel Ángel Rosales’ documentary film, Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories which reveals the fundamental contribution of Afro-Andalusian communities to the music, dance and cultural expression that has shaped flamenco. Through historical research, music and performance, the film traces the experience of enslaved Africans brought to Spain during the colonial era, and explores how their cultural practices are woven into Andalusian society.

Choreographer Yinka Esi Graves and filmmaker Miguel Ángel Rosales bring together three films from their The Disappearing Act series: The Coast I, The Forest and The Door. Created through a series of site-responsive interventions, the films emerge from Graves' exploration of places shaped by colonial discourse. Filmed in locations across Spain, Portugal and Ghana, they respond to landscapes that hold traces of brutal displacement and erasure, yet often bear few visible signs of the histories they contain.

Created by acclaimed choreographer Victoria Marks and the visionary filmmaker Margaret Williams, MJW Productions and Candoco Dance Company presents Outside In. Originally commissioned by the BBC and Arts Council England’s pioneering Dance for Camera series, the film features co-founder of Candoco Celeste Dandeker-Arnold alongside a cast of disabled and non-disabled dancers. Playful, inventive and quietly revolutionary, Outside In challenged perceptions of dance and disability at a time when inclusive performance was rarely seen on mainstream screens. The film is one of the BBC's most celebrated dance films, receiving multiple international awards and standing today as a remarkable document of Candoco's pioneering early years.

Finally in the digital pass is Poliana Lima’s 15 años (15 years). The internationally acclaimed artist explores questions of identity, belonging and visibility through a personal lens. Reflecting on gender, age, migration and cultural lineages, she asks what lies beneath the labels we use to define ourselves, and how we connect with one another beyond them.

Live event Artist Encounters, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate, this year, taking place at The Bhavan, features one of the most influential dance artists of his generation and multi-award winning choreographer Akram Khan. After the live event it will be available online with the Digital Pass.

Full details https://danceumbrella.co.uk/

This year’s live programme includes South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza returns to Dance Umbrella with THE HERD/LESS at Sadler’s Wells East; Brazilian choreographer Poliana Lima and British flamenco artist Yinka Esi Graves present A Place To Dance performed at The Place . Also at The Place, Dutch artist Arno Schuitemaker presents After After . Scottish artists Jack Anderson and Charlotte Mclean in collaboration with Malin Lewis present not for glory at Cecil Sharp House. At the Barbican Lebanese French choreographer Omar Rajeh presents Dance is Not for Us. For families, Theatre-Rites and Miguel Altunaga will tour Eshu at the Crossroads to the Albany, Casa at Brixton House and The Place. Founder of Blulili Projects and Guest Curator Anthea Lewis presents Touch The Floor at Rich Mix and Omar Rajeh’s Spaces of Encounter will be screened at the Barbican Cinema as part of Dance Umbrella’s film series: Sunday Shorts.