The Place announces its Autumn season

London’s leading centre for dance performance and creation The Place is delighted to launch an electrifying autumn season, with must-see highlights including the otherworldly athleticism of the award-winning James Wilton Company, the first solo work by audience favourite Solène Weihnachter, and this year’s festive family show Pirates! By Scottish Dance Theatre.

The Place is also excited to recommence Touch Wood again, a micro-season of new ideas developed during the summer by our Choreodrome artists and presented in our Studios. This former autumn season staple, which returns for the first time since the pandemic, is an opportunity to experience the newest ideas and research in dance and includes facilitated audience feedback sessions.

“Our Autumn season is jam-packed with brilliant choreographic and performance work: Emilyn Claid and Seke Chimutengwende, two of the best-selling artists of last year, bring back their critically celebrated and popular shows for audiences to experience again; we present a mini season of queer choreographic practices featuring Emilyn’s work alongside Gareth Chambers and a mixed-bill curated by FRINGE! Queer Film & Art Fest; we explore contemporary expressions of Classical Indian dance through presentations of Akademi, Sonia Sabri Company and Pagrav, and the choreographic practices of artists working in Africa and of the African Diaspora through our new collaboration with Afro Dance Xplosion; we bring unmissable international work from SU Pin-Wen and Alexandre Fandard as part of Dance Umbrella, from leading European performance artists VestAndPage, and from Aerowaves artists POCKETART collective; and there’s rich home-grown work, including from Bobak Champion, James Wilton Company, and Van Huynh Company and from Choreodrome artists Susanna Dye and Louise Orwin and Work Place artist Chisato Minamimura. We’re delighted to be collaborating with all these artists and companies. It’s going to be a phenomenal season and we can’t wait for audiences to meet their work. See you here.” The Place Programming Team

Later in the season, students of London Contemporary Dance School will showcase their cross-disciplinary Collaborations, and the much-loved annual youth dance showcase Fresh returns. Children and family audiences can explore environmental consequences in Plastic Drastic Fantastic by acclaimed South Asian dance company Akademi, soar through the air in Xenia Aidonopoulou’s magical multi-sensory experience Skydiver, part of Dance Umbrella, and go treasure hunting with a rowdy crew of Pirates!, in the latest creation of Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joan Clevillé.

Highlights of the autumn season include:

• The London premiere of 1 9 Monologue by internationally renowned performance artists VestAndPage (30 SEP)
• The London premiere of LORE, a new work by James Wilton Company, inspired by Viking, Celtic and Slavic folklore (10&11 OCT)
• A focus on contemporary expressions of South Asian dance with works by Pagrav Dance Company, Akademi and Sonia Sabri Company.
• Queer works by Gareth Chambers (9 SEP), Emilyn Claid (23 SEP) and a mixed-bill curated by Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest (21 SEP)
• The premiere of Mark of a Woman by Workplace artist Chisato Minamimura, exploring the under-told stories of women and tattooing (7 NOV)
• Afro Dance Xplosion Festival (ADX), ‘Best Dance Production’ at the Black British Theatre Awards, celebrates movement traditions from the continent of Africa and its Diaspora (10 NOV)
• Pirates! – A swashbuckling adventure for all ages with Captain Sandy Rogers and her rowdy crew (16 – 24 DEC), with further family shows as part of Dance Umbrella (24 OCT) and Akademi (26 OCT)