Dance Umbrella announces full 2026 Festival Programme

Dance Umbrella, London’s annual international dance festival, is delighted to announce the 2026 festival programme taking place across London and online from 7 - 27 October 2026. Curated by Artistic Director & Co-CEO Freddie Opoku-Addaie, the festival brings the best of international contemporary dance to London audiences.
 
LIVE PROGRAMME INCLUDES:

• THE ANNUAL ARTIST ENCOUNTERS TALK WITH THE RENOWNED CHOREOGRAPHER AKRAM KHAN
• 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 TO 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
• OMAR RAJEH’S SPACES OF ENCOUNTER WILL BE SCREENED AT THE BARBICAN CINEMA AS PART OF DANCE UMBRELLA’S FILM SERIES: SUNDAY SHORTS 

 
DIGITAL PROGRAMME INCLUDES: 

• OMAR RAJEH & MAQAMAT PRESENTS THE ODOR OF ELEPHANTS AFTER THE RAIN PLUS A CURATION OF FILMS FROM SPACES OF ENCOUNTER
• INTERMEDIA PRODUCCIONES PRESENTS GURUMBÉ: AFRO-ANDALUSIAN MEMORIES 
• YINKA ESI GRAVES AND MIGUEL ÁNGEL ROSALES PRESENTS THREE FILMS THE COAST I, THE FOREST AND THE DOOR 
• MJW PRODUCTIONS & CANDOCO DANCE COMPANY PRESENT PIONEERING FILM OUTSIDE IN
• POLIANA LIMA PRESENTS POLIANA LIMA 15 AÑOS (15 YEARS)

 
Dance Umbrella’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO Freddie Opoku-Addaie commented: “I continue to be inspired by the generosity, rigour and imagination of artists and their creative teams in building communities and creating work that holds space for our shared humanity, especially at a time when so much around us says otherwise. This year's festival invites audiences to experience dance as a meeting place for cultures, histories and communities, while also celebrating the joy of coming together. Alongside witnessing extraordinary performances, many of this year's works invite you to throw a few shapes on the dance floor too. So yes, bring your dancing shoes and your good vibes - they're very much wanted on dance floors across your global city's festival.”
 
For the second year, Dance Umbrella has made a number of £10 tickets available at each performance in order to open up the Festival to more people and make it easier to explore more of the programme. This year, the scheme is supported by ARC Ratings.
 
LIVE PROGRAMME
 
Announced today, Brazilian choreographer Poliana Lima and British flamenco dance artist Yinka Esi Graves draw on their multiple cultural heritages and distinct artistic languages in A Place To Dance (9 & 10 October) at The Place. A captivating new performance work shaped by rhythm, dialogue and an innate desire to celebrate shared experiences. Dissolving the boundaries between audience and performer, participation and observation, the world unfolds in-the-round with a tour de force of collaborators. Framed by opening and closing sets from DJ Oumoukala, this immersive invasion becomes a celebration of the body in its collective dimension - communal, porous and thrillingly alive.
 
Also at The Place, Dutch artist Arno Schuitemaker brings seven dancers together beneath a single strip of light in After After (21 October). Drawing on the spirit of the dancefloor, seven distinct voices and ways of moving unfold side by side. Through touch, attention and care, the dancers create a shifting field of difference, connection and possibility. An electronic score and striking lighting transform the space around them as small gestures gather momentum, creating an atmosphere that is both intimate and exhilarating.
 
The joyful and imaginative Eshu at the Crossroads is also announced today, presented by pioneering puppetry company Theatre-Rites and Afro-Cuban choreographer Miguel Altunaga. At a mysterious crossroads, a traveller must decide which way to turn. Watching over them is a powerful rooster, while nearby waits Eshu – the playful and unpredictable trickster spirit who delights in mischief, surprises and unexpected possibilities.
 
Touring across London to The Albany (24 October), CASA at Brixton House (25 October) and The Place (27 October), Eshu at the Crossroads is a vibrant family adventure for aged 5+ inspired by Yorubic culture, myth and storytelling.
 
Taking place at Rich Mix is Touch the Floor (24 October), a multidisciplinary curatorial programme exploring the history and evolution of Black British music cultures through the informal spaces where people gathered, danced, connected and created community. DU26 Guest Curator Anthea Lewis (Blulili Projects), traces the way sound and movement have shaped collective experience in the UK, exploring the relationship between Black British music, social dance and cultural production across generations. Bringing together artists, dancers, DJs, academics and audiences Touch the Floor creates space to gather, move and reflect on the histories, communities and creative legacies carried through Black British music and social dance.
 
The festival also presents the Dance Umbrella Film Series: Sunday Shorts (18 October), which will run at the Barbican cinema. Spaces of Encounter is a specially curated programme of short films selected by dance artist, festival director and filmmaker Omar Rajeh. Throughout his work, Rajeh explores the relationship between bodies, memory and place, examining how movement can reveal the social, political and emotional landscapes we inhabit. For this edition of Dance Umbrella’s Sunday Shorts, he brings together a collection of films that reflect these ongoing artistic enquiries.
 
LIVE PROGRAMME - PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED 
 
South African artist Mamela Nyamza returns to the Dance Umbrella Festival with the UK premiere of THE HERD/LESS (8 - 10 October), presented at Sadler’s Wells East. THE HERD/LESS draws on the dual meaning of the ‘herd’: a collective moving in harmony and a group controlled, shaped and directed by cultural and physical forces. Power emerges through ritual, repetition and the quiet surrender of the individual to the group. Cloth and cultural sticks - traditional southern African objects associated with masculine authority - become both symbols of position and tools for control. This year, Mamela Nyamza was awarded a 2026 Venice Biennale Silver Lion for her work bringing new urgency and ancestral traditions to dance.
 
The London premiere of Dance is Not for Us (16 & 17 October) takes over the Barbican’s Pit, by Cie Omar Rajeh & Maqamat. Marking a rare London appearance from Omar Rajeh, the founder of Maqamat and BIPOD - Beirut International Platform of Dance, and recipient of France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Rajeh brings over two decades of practice to an intimate solo that is at once a personal memoir and a political act. Alone onstage, he dances and speaks of a past that no longer exists - of Lebanon, of loss, of a world that froze before it could become a future. Raw, urgent and deeply human, this is a work that asks what it means to keep dancing when everything around you says stop.
 
Finally in the live programme is not for glory (13 & 14 October) a restless, relentless unraveling of traditional dance and music at Cecil Sharp House. Jack Anderson and Charlotte Mclean, in collaboration with Malin Lewis, brings together Highland dance, Irish dance and live piping in a dance-theatre gig that is as thrillingly physical as it is emotionally charged. Rebellious, funny and fiercely alive, not for glory makes a powerful case for reclaiming what we inherit on our own terms. Whether you know your reels from your jigs or have never been within ten feet of a set of pipes, this is a show that will pull you onto the dance floor and not let go.  
 
ARTIST ENCOUNTERS: ANATOMY OF A STORY 
 
Artist Encounters is a talk with an internationally renowned guest artist, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate. This year, taking place at The Bhavan, one of the most influential dance artists of his generation and multi-award winning choreographer Akram Khan brings his distinctive voice. 
 
This landmark event will offer a rare window into the inner workings of Khan’s artistic process. Through conversation, reflection and live discussion with collaborators, he will explore how storytelling, personal history and intention underpin every stage in developing his internationally acclaimed productions.   
  
Presented in the intimate setting of The Bhavan, a space long connected to South Asian arts and one that holds a personal significance for Akram, Anatomy of a Story offers a unique opportunity to experience the thinking and philosophy behind the work of a leading choreographic voice during a poignant moment in his artistic journey.   
 
PANEL DISCUSSION
 
This year’s panel discussion, Curating in Context brings together artists, curators and cultural leaders to explore how dance is programmed across different geographies and whose perspectives inform these choices. 
 
Taking place at Somerset House, and facilitated by Isabel Moura Mendes, Senior Relationship Manager for Theatre and Dance at the British Council. Further panellists are to be announced. 
 
DIGITAL PASS 
 
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.