Press Story

27 Oct 2026

Resolution, the UK's largest annual showcase of new choreography, returns to The Place for 21 nights from 8 January – 25 February 2027, bringing the latest work from emerging dance artists to a main London stage. New for 2027, the inaugural Resolution Award 2027 extends the festival's support for emerging choreographers with a clear pathway into our main theatre programming. Together with opportunities for recent graduates and aspiring dance critics, the festival is manifesting its central idea as a springboard for the artists and voices who will shape the future of dance.

Founded more than 35 years ago by the late John Ashford, Director of The Place's theatre from 1986 to 2009, Resolution was conceived as an open platform where choreographers could test ideas and present new work to audiences. Since then, it has become a significant entry point into the professional dance sector, with artists including Sir Wayne McGregor, Mark Baldwin, Hofesh Shechter, Botis Seva, Kate Prince and Ivan Blackstock among those who have presented work at the festival. Resolution has been central in shaping The Place’s reputation as the place to discover new things first, and we are proud to continue this tradition.

Today, Resolution's role extends well beyond the performances themselves. Through professional development, new commissions, graduate opportunities and critical writing, The Place is building pathways for people at different stages of their careers, supporting not only the creation of new choreography but the wider ecology that allows dance to develop and thrive.

Eddie Nixon, Artistic Director of The Place, says: ‘Resolution is a fundamental part of what The Place is here for – to give opportunities to dancemakers; to try new ideas and support them to develop their creative voice and careers. The Resolution Award is a new step in the pathways of support that we offer for makers, and we look forward to celebrating the distinct choreographic ideas which are always such a privilege to encounter throughout the festival.’

Beyond the performances, Resolution offers artists a professional development programme covering technical production, marketing and producing, alongside opportunities to connect with potential collaborators. The festival gives artists space to experiment, develop their practice and build relationships with audiences and the wider sector.

Introducing the Resolution Award 2027

For the first time, two artists or collectives presenting work at Resolution 2027 will be selected for a new commissioning award, recognising original and distinctive approaches to movement and choreography.

Each recipient will receive £3,000 towards the creation of a new work, a £1,500 performance fee, two weeks of studio space, technical resources and producing support. They will also participate in a new Resolution Lab, bringing them into creative conversation with resident artists and producers from The Place to exchange ideas and develop their choreographic practice.

The commissioned works will premiere in a double bill at The Place in March 2028, creating a tangible next step for artists whose work has shown particular originality and promise at the festival. This award has been developed following a pilot project which will see four artists who presented work in Resolution 2026 return to the theatre with new works in March 2027

Propeller Artists – opportunities for recent graduates

This year's festival also features new commissions by five London Contemporary Dance School graduates, supported through Propeller, The Place's artist development programme for alumni and recent graduates. Designed to bridge the transition from training into professional practice, Propeller provides artists with a two-week residency, studio space and creative support to develop a new work for Resolution, connecting emerging choreographers with the resources and professional experience to develop their practice and present their work to a public audience. Propeller artists are Esther Bedeau, Jess Yeo, Alex Whelan, Maddy Westhead and Mia Ostinelli.

Developing the next generation of dance writers

Resolution also supports the development of dance criticism through Resolution Review, a writing programme running alongside the festival which has played an important role in developing a new generation of dance critics and broadening the range of voices writing about dance. Through an open application process, emerging writers are selected to review performances at Resolution, working with established critics as mentors. Over the years, the programme has helped bring younger writers and a wider range of perspectives into dance criticism, with former participants now contributing to many publications and platforms in the wider critical landscape.

Together, these programmes reflect Resolution's evolving role: not simply presenting emerging talent, but investing in the artists, graduates and critics whose work will shape the future of dance.

Programme

Fri 8 Jan 7.30pm

Eoin McCaul - TAIBHSE [Ghost]

TAIBHSE [Ghost] is an ongoing movement and sound work in which the score is created entirely of sounds of contact made during performance, looped and mixed live by Dilan Kumar. The work is interested in ghosts, particularly those ghosts of touch which haunt the body through life – whether familial, erotic, or otherwise.

Fin Murray – Exhibitionists

Exhibitionists explores the bravado of a group of egotistical men and how they hope to be seen. Through powerful group movement and moments of individual self-discovery, the piece looks at what lies beneath that hood of ego. Together, they find a new way to move, connect and express themselves, grooving to the rhythm of who they really are.

Rajeswari Ramaswamy – She Who Moves Everything

Inspired by the Devi Mahatmyam, an ancient Sanskrit text celebrating Shakti, the vital force that animates all life, She Who Moves Everything explores feminine energy as the pulse that animates existence. Shakti means “energy, ability, strength, power.” In this work, it becomes both a concept and a felt experience moving through the body. The performance explores feminine energy as a life force rather than a fixed idea or symbol, combining Bharatanatyam vocabulary with exploratory movement to bring classical forms into a living, present experience.

Sat 9 Jan 7.30pm

Indigo Movement Company – As We Grow

As We Grow is a heartwarming, dance and puppetry piece created by Lauren Williams and performed by Indigo Movement Company. Inspired by the concept of Birth Order Theory, the audience is invited to consider, how do our relationships with our siblings (or lack of) influence the people we grow into as adults? This piece explores the potential complexities of an eldest child and how their personality could be shaped through family dynamics and expectations.

Jacob Lang and Lara Fournier – Bedtime Stories: From Our Bed We Seek Embrace

There is a bedroom. There is a bed. There is you. There is me. There is us. Bedtime Stories is an intimate contact-based contemporary dance duet that peers into the time for connection, sensuality, and tenderness, often held behind closed doors. It is a wordless conversation. A slow dance of moving feelings. It is a reminder of how intimacy has its own physical presence that can permeate a space.

Izzy Doick – Timeplay

In Timeplay a capitalist dystopia is revealed. We meet the matriarchy, formed of eight dancers, fighting for the earth, community and presence. Amidst turmoil, they navigate questions of identity, connection and balance in an oppressive world. The work explores our longing to return to the past whilst racing towards a better future. Timeplay asks: how do we find peace, and what happens when we finally get there?

Wed 13 Jan 7.30pm

Paxton Ricketts – IDIOM IDIOT

IDIOM IDIOT is a duet, questioning the decisions made in the moment and those ingrained within us. Language follows a well-trodden path laid by grammar and norms, like water finding the path of least resistance. Idioms are passed down through culture, their origins antiquated, offering shortcuts to feelings. Movement carries the same history. Dance today is shaped by experiences of previous generations, like DNA. The idioms of movement. What remains beautiful or necessary in this inheritance, and what do we carry forward out of habit, long after its purpose has been forgotten? This work is an expansion of a work that won the Prix Osipova 2026 Cambridge Edition.

Alara Vural - INtangled

In this solo performance, a woman moves inside a custom-built elastic net – pulled, caught, released, entangled. INtangled is an exploration of the attachments we turn to for safety: love, technology, substances, each other. How far will we go to avoid being alone? When does comfort become a cage? The performance is accompanied by a soundscape built from the audience’s own voices, collected before the show, layered with original electronic music by Yildiray Yener and an improvised dialogue between live musicians.

Cornelia Eriksson Burman & Zenab Bukkar - Dripping Taps: Mornings I Didn’t Speak Of

Written in the space between internal collapse and public composure, and shaped by surviving heavy mornings, when feelings had to be contained before the day could begin, the works explore what happens when emotions are managed, masked and carried quietly. Through spoken word and movement, Dripping Taps gives form to what often remains unseen, tracing how the body holds so much and keeps going. Rather than offering resolution, the work invites audiences into a space where vulnerability becomes a shared language, and connection is allowed to be soft.

Thu 14 Jan 7.30pm

Shea Sullivan – Kiwi Portal

Kiwi Portal is a time-bending, at times unhinged retelling of true events, sparked by a strange piece of advice in the wake of heartbreak: eat two kiwis before bed. “They give you wild dreams.” Over the course of a two-month experiment, one recurring dream emerged as an uncanny coincidence. Along the way came unexpected wisdom from unlikely places: “Be who your younger self needed,” offered by Jane, a self-identified aging punk in New York’s East Village. “Choose yourself… if I could go back in time,” echoed the sage advice of a self-identified cross-dresser encountered on a train platform in the middle of nowhere at 7:30 a.m., wearing coveralls and a white kitten heel. Kiwi Portal is an ode to stuffed animals, dancing in your bedroom, first studios, wild nights out, and the people who find us and hold us when we need it most. A love letter to best friends, the Universe, and the strange, beautiful ways we find our way back to ourselves.

Hayleigh Sellors – At the Hands of You

A raw and honest solo, exploring motherhood and matrescence. A woman finds herself uprooted and at the edge of herself, trying to find her way through a dark forest, only to be spat out into a new reality. Physical and intense, the work draws on Popping, Krump, Waacking and Contemporary dance to explore the contradictions of motherhood: the desperation to hold on, the fear of losing everything, the unspoken grief, and a heart full of love.

Lea Orož - The Monster Lady

The Monster Lady is exhausted by conventional beauty. She searches instead for harmony in what society perceives as opposites and strives to inhabit both of her worlds at once. The grotesque becomes sublime. The sexual becomes pure. Flesh and metal blur together. Fear and fascination with paradox continue to intertwine. In this performance, contemporary dancer Lea Orož interacts with an installation created by artist Evangeline Armstrong.

Fri 15 Jan 7.30pm

+353 - sub(conscious)

There's too many bodies on the stage, too many stories in the archives, too much noise in our ears. Tracing rave as the echo of our world's history throughout the 20th century. Part-historical document, part homage, we’re looking beyond the ephemeral and into the future. Join us as we explore rave cultures' lineage, journeying sonically and literally from Detroit to London in this large-ensemble contemporary work.

Roshaan Asare - You Made Me Feel (Step IV)

You Made Me Feel (Step IV) is a journey of joy and loss set to the soulful sounds of the pioneering and iconic musician, Sylvester. Inspired by his life and thoughts, the piece is a tribute exploring ideas of presence, connection, stardom, uniqueness and grief. Through expressive honesty, intricate musicality and the community spirit at the heart of Whacking, the work celebrates his legacy.

Esther Bedeau – Virago

Virago explores how physical strength, and muscularity are embodied by women. Sparked by current conversations on weight loss culture and Gender Performativity theory, Virago asks the question, how can female performers celebrate physical strength, confidence and freedom in their movement whilst living in a culture that tells women to stay small? Influenced by the masculine and feminine imagery found in renaissance artwork, two dancers find freedom, possibility and rebellion in their physical abilities, muscularity and dynamic movement.

Wed 27 Jan 7.30pm

Tzu-Hsien, Wang – We are all trying here

What if we have already passed away, and your soul is simply wandering through the corridors of memory? Centred around a lone bathtub, this evocative contemporary dance piece invites audiences into a whirlpool of recollection – from fleeting joys to sorrow, and the hurdles we thought we could never overcome. Through fluid movement and raw emotion, the performance explores the moments that test us, shape us, and remind us that we are all simply trying our best here.

Myles Mac Donald and Alex Morton – Boy Friends

A juggling duet and a love story between friends. Anchored in the dynamics of their own creative partnership, Myles and Alex explore how men share intimacy, affection, emotion and acts of creation with one another. Juggling, movement and theatre intertwine as patterns become embraces, handshakes become elaborate dances and fights become playful exchanges. Rooted in Prechac juggling notation and Threading Theatre’s movement practice, their intricate choreography brings together technical precision, physical play and clowning. With simple props, pedestrian costumes and a minimalist aesthetic, Boy Friends creates a playful and gently comedic space to explore platonic male intimacy, masculinity and friendship through movement, touch and play.

Jessica Lara Ridge - Corpus Terrestre

A visceral contemporary dance work exploring the innate desire for something beyond ourselves, existing between ancestral faith and uncertainty. Witness a search that looks not to the heavens, but in between the cracks of the dirt that we share. Where holiness is constructed from the breath of raw labour and the sweat of collective skin. This is the dance of the earth-bound, searching for salvation in the bones of another.

Thu 28 Jan 7.30pm

Iona Brie – Piskie

Piskie (Cornish for Pixie) is a modern-day tale of defying myths and taking ownership of your story. Born from folklore, Piskie is a playful, multifaceted character who is growing tired of performing. Confused and frustrated, they are searching for answers. Exploring themes of neurodivergence, masking and loneliness, the work blends contemporary and street dance styles, brought to life through striking lighting by Ali Hunter. From the opening overture to its unexpected ending, you spiral into Piskie’s world and beyond… leaving you questioning everything.

Esther Cheong – The Weight of The Grass

At a crossroads, we weigh our options, imagine the possibilities, and hope to make the right choice. But what happens when we hold the power to influence someone else’s fate? The Weight of the Grass is a contemporary hip-hop theatre work exploring fate, free will and the uncertainty of decision-making. Following a character through a series of choices, the work examines the temptation of what lies beyond and the paths we might have taken. Blending dance, text and audience interaction, audiences step into the role of a higher power, shaping the character’s journey while questioning how much control we truly have over our own destiny.

Chloe Shyan – But We Did Everything Right

But We Did Everything Right is an ensemble-devised dance theatre piece examining our proximity to crisis and the ways in which we respond to it. The flatmates gather to watch the news. Faced with yet another catalogue of crises, they turn instead to the question of what to have for dinner.” Drawing inspiration from the dramatic precision of Kidd Pivot, the visceral physicality of Hofesh Shechter and the humanity of Gecko, the piece transforms the everyday into the extraordinary. Through the tension between the personal and the political, it seeks to reclaim attention from the forces that commodify it, reimagining it as a space for creative expression and collective encounter.

Fri 29 Jan 7.30pm

Nick Hodos – Funeral Show

Funeral Show is a contemporary ballet exploring grief, bodily memory and the rituals of farewell, drawing on the artistic aesthetic of Vladimir Nabokov. Set during a funeral service, the work follows a young man lost among mourners as his body becomes a response to grief, memory and loss. Through movement, physical theatre, live interactive video and an original score, the performance moves between collective ritual and intimate solitude, dream and waking reality. The body becomes a place where denial, confusion, vulnerability and acceptance collide. Funeral Show invites audiences into a visceral, mesmerising journey through the anatomy of parting, and asks who the ritual is truly for.

Nritya-Alaap – Moksha (Liberation)

Be transported into the timeless grace of Odissi, as embodied in the ancient temple architecture, and embark on a journey through colourful emotions and self-discovery. “Rasa theory” as depicted in the time-honoured scriptures of Natya Shastra from 200BCE, asserts entertainment is a desired effect of performance art but not the primary goal. The primary goal was to use performance art as vehicle of liberation (moksha). Come and explore your realm of consciousness and reflect on spiritual and moral entities through Odissi, the oldest form of Indian classical dance, originating in the coastal temples of Odisha.

Jess Yeo - FEAST

FEAST is an exploration of rituals around eating, food rules and table manners, informed by feminist frameworks and queer phenomenology. Centering the table itself as a catalyst for quiet rebellion, the piece unfolds as a round-table discussion where women question, challenge and negotiate autonomy. In doing so, the work asks what it means to show up to the table each day with the resilience to move from scarcity to abundance. FEAST stands as an offering and an ode to the women who set the table, sustain others and are now bold enough to ask for seconds.

Sat 30 Jan 7.30pm

Adhya Shastry – Ananta

Ananta (Sanskrit for timeless or endless) is a dance-theatre work inhabiting the fragile, disorienting state of grief – the space between knowing someone is gone and still feeling them everywhere. Through movement, sound, and evocative imagery, the work moves through memories held in the body: the warmth of a hand, a familiar face, a voice that lingers long after it has fallen silent. Moments of tenderness give way to longing, absence, and the ache of returning again and again to what can no longer be held. Ananta explores grief not as something to overcome, but as a way of living with love after loss.

Bella Gaynor– Praying for a Car Park (& Other Miracles)

In Praying for a car park (& other miracles), Bella Gaynor embarks on a jolly little pilgrimage to revisit her time at a convent school; everything it did, and didn’t, teach her. Helped along the way by fellow convent girls, disciples and the church choir, the work reflects on the absurd side of a religious upbringing. What do we loyally believe as children and what do we still want to believe as adults? What guilt does this bring? And does muttering ‘thank god’ when the bus comes on time count as daily prayer?

Lillian Schroeder - The Unburned

The Unburned is a contemporary dance theatre show about desire: what we long for and how it consumes us. Inspired by witchcraft and old religious stories, the show creates a space for people who have been feared, rejected or misunderstood. Through movement and sound, the work explores the things we chase, the things we cannot let go of, and the desire to belong. It asks why satisfaction can always feel just out of reach, and whether coming together can help break the cycle of wanting.

Tue 2 Feb 7.30pm

Adél Bálint - Bare

Bare explores the physical imprint of emotions and the process of carrying and releasing what is held within. The performer moves through tension, tenderness, chaos, and stillness, allowing the body to become a landscape for emotion and memory. Cardboard boxes and their contents become extensions of the body, representing emotional weight, memories, and experiences carried over time. Through folding, tearing, manipulating, and returning these materials, the performer explores feelings that can be difficult to express through words. As the boxes are gradually broken down and destroyed, a sense of release begins to emerge.

Sua Tsubokura Aguiriano - KAMI

The Japanese word Kami (髪/神/纸) has three separate meanings: hair, deity and a sheet of paper. All are forms of quiet strength and powerful fragility. Join us in our ritual of freedom, joy, anger and power as we tell the story of antagonised female characters. Some who were exalted and exploited; others misrepresented and misunderstood. But all limited and reduced in the name of being a woman.

Angela Andrew - St. Sharon of Stoke Newington

A study on sainthood and visibility. A tribute to the unlistened to. An installation reclaiming space for those who were once made unwelcome.

Wed 3 Feb 7.30pm

Penelope Klamert – The Web We Spun

The Web We Spun explores the invisible structures that shape our lives, from social expectations and cultural norms to the frameworks we create for ourselves. Blending popping with physical theatre, the performers weave, thread and pull against one another, creating an ever-changing web of connection, restriction and support. As the performers move through the web, the work explores the tension between safety and entanglement, freedom and responsibility, and our desire to escape the structures that shape us.

Kat Korsimaa – SOFT GUT GOSPEL

SOFT GUT GOSPEL explores the tension of feeling “not queer enough, not straight enough” as a pansexual individual moving between queer and heterosexual spaces. Drawing on bisexuality as an umbrella term that includes pansexuality, the work confronts biphobia, erasure and the pressure to prove one’s queerness. The performance examines the performativity of sexuality and how identity is felt in the body. Hair becomes both an intimate part of the body and a visible marker of queerness, whilst also serving as the tool used to paint directly onto the performance surface. Movement, hair and paint create traces of resistance, uncertainty and self-definition, questioning who gets to decide what queerness looks like.

Tiegan Doyle – Is This Bliss

Is This Bliss explores the tension between awareness and apathy. Within this modern realm of politics, it asks what happens when protecting your peace means looking away? Inspired by the idiom ‘ignorance is bliss’, the dancers navigate a society where disengagement feels easier than facing what is happening around them. Blending contemporary dance with the raw physicality of krump, the work moves between restraint, rupture and collective intensity. As awareness spreads, so does the question of responsibility: when the world feels overwhelming, how much can we choose not to see? Is This Bliss does not offer answers or ask for outrage. Instead, it asks what we see, what we ignore, and what it costs to remain unaware. What are you choosing to ignore?

Thu 4 Feb 7.30pm

Ophey Chan – Home Earth

HOME EARTH is a dance piece inspired by bamboo, its ecology and its place in Hong Kong’s everyday life and culture. From scaffolding that supports the city to the structures that hold a home together, bamboo becomes a starting point to explore strength, vulnerability and belonging. Through grounded movement, collective rhythms and physical relationships, dancers investigate how bodies support, challenge and adapt to one another. As structures shift and relationships change, HOME EARTH asks what it means to build, protect and sustain a sense of home, and what we carry forward when the world around us changes.

Test Kitchen Collective – Duet for 1

Duet for 1 asks what it means to truly be present with another person. Through everyday rituals of being together, two bodies navigate closeness and distance, harmony and disruption. The work transforms the familiar into something strange, playful and surreal. As connection gives way to friction, intimacy and vulnerability, the performers continually negotiate how to be with – and remain themselves – beside one another. In a world of constant digital connection, Duet for 1 invites us to slow down, look closely, and encounter one another in real time.

Dayeon Oh and Youjin Kim - Ganggangsullae: Traces of a Circle

Ganggangsullae is a traditional Korean communal dance where people join hands in a circle, singing and moving together. Ganggangsullae: Traces of a Circle reimagines this tradition through six performers from different cultural backgrounds. Though times change, people still wish for one another’s wellbeing, dream of a better tomorrow and support one another. Drawing on memories and experiences carried within their bodies, the performers create gestures that meet and intertwine, forming a shared language of movement. As in Ganggangsullae, individual movements become one dance and the circle becomes a space where different bodies and stories connect across cultures, memories and generations.

Fri 5 Feb 7.30pm

Liam Woodvine - The Observers

The Observers is a contemporary dance quartet that physicalizes our relationship with surveillance. The dancer's eyes are placed in the palms of their hands, emulating a symbolism found across global religions, cultures, and mythologies. Bodies merge and split creating optical illusions with the fluid, snake-like movement of the hands. As the dancers contort the human form, they survey each other and the audience, using their gaze to control one another. This work asks us to reflect on how governments and companies observe us in our physical and digital landscapes and the influence this has on our lives.

Maisie Gregory – 80

Using repetitive and physical movements, 80 explores themes of emotional desensitisation within a confined world. Choreographer Maisie Gregory aims to challenge modern society by asking audiences to reflect on where they see themselves within the work. A combination of geometric patterns, intricate pathways, and gentle moments draws parallels with the experience of crowded public transport. This work can be interpreted as a yearning for human connection and a reminder to notice the world around you, in a culture where it has become normalised to ignore what is in front of you.

Alex Whelan - bumming the DJ

bumming the DJ is a semi-autobiographical contemporary dance work performed by Alex Whelan, alongside a live DJ in an unnamed place and time. Built around the repeated attempt to get the attention of the DJ, despite their indifference, the work explores queer desire, longing, validation, and the performances we create for one another. Moving between performativity, fantasy, confession, and excess, bumming the DJ combines dance, electronic music, and text to navigate intimacy, nihilism, self-performance and a dull, yet ever-present, desire for something more.

Sat 6 Feb 7.30pm

Peter Butler – Shadows of influence

Shadows of influence is a narrative, highly physical, contemporary dance piece exploring modern tools of manipulation – algorithms, influencers, industry – and their relationship to consumption. Featuring an original score by Berwyn Cooper, an unnerving atmosphere unfolds as a morphing, formless ensemble takes shape around our protagonist, whose autonomy is tested by the persistent pull of these shadows. Contemporary techniques and Eastern movement philosophies combine to provide a visually rich display, embodying different movement qualities and textures.

Soo Hahn & Hannah Mason – Umbilicus

Two performers, one camera – tethered together by an umbilical cord. Directed by Soo Hahn and choreographed by Hannah Mason, this pulsating yet fragile duet blends movement and cine-theatre to explore the symbiosis between a performer, media, and spectatorship. Whoever controls the camera feed controls the narrative. As a dancer and a videographer on stage grapple for control of the camera – and ultimately of one another – they ask, who holds the power between a performer and the audience? Are they capable of existing without one another?

Amari Webb-Martin – First Rain

Inspired by the Orisha, powerful deities rooted in Yoruba tradition whose legacies endure across the African Diaspora, First Rain is a contemporary dance piece paying homage to Western and African dance practices. Inspired by the Rain Festival of Santa Cruz, Trinidad, the piece follows Shango, Orisha of thunder, drumming and masculine energy, and Oshun, Orisha of sweet rivers, love and femininity. Guided by Nana Buruku, the grandmother Orisha, their story explores the relationship between divine feminine and masculine energies, questioning how they coexist within us all. With an original score by Amari Webb-Martin and an ensemble of nine versatile dancers, witness relentless rhythms, irresistible grooves and a celebration of diasporic movement traditions.

Tue 16 Feb 7.30pm

Zac Priestley – Chasm

Chasm uses abstract ideas and absurdity to interrogate the act of reclaiming oneself and unlearning inherited beliefs. The performer holds fragments of past lives; vigilance, disconnection, exhaustion and shame echo throughout the landscape of their self-designed chasm. Trapped within cycles of these states, the performer begins to long for relief, for change, for joy once known. Unannounced, the chasm begins to tear itself open, offering the space for perspectives to shift. The work asks: how can we reframe our past and move beyond restrictions designed to protect us? How can we find safety when it was never truly there?

Marianna Sfyridi – Petrichor

Petrichor is the name of the scent released when rain touches dry earth – a smell almost everyone knows and almost no one can explain. Its source is geosmin, produced by Streptomyces coelicolor, a soil bacterium that coordinates vast underground colonies without hierarchy; and the co-choreographer of this piece. Soil vials pass between performers and audience. A berimbau assembles from four corners of the room. Bodies follow the map of bacteria. Choreographer Marianna Sfyridi brings Capoeira, Greek Pentozali and laboratory research into dialogue, asking: what does it feel like to be part of a collective, from the inside? And what might the human body learn from the microcosm?

Sophie Ormiston – Best In Show

Set in a glitzy, glamorous, and colourful beauty pageant, Best In Show follows two contestants as they compete in familiar rituals of display. These rituals grow increasingly surreal, exposing the vulnerability and labour beneath polished versions of self-presentation. Through absurdity, humour, and spectacle, this theatrical world comments on society's obsession with optimisation, inviting the audience to recognise themselves in these systems of judgement.

Wed 17 Feb 7.30pm

Hannah George - Retellings

Retellings is a contemporary dance work combining geometric movement and juggling balls to explore the lives of two people. Moving in close proximity, the dancers weave around one another, passing and manipulating objects to create elusive narratives. Accompanied by an original score by Sofia Roubati, dancers Anna Smith and Eli ForestBryan move through shadow, silhouette and sculpted light. The work explores how connections shape us, bringing new versions of ourselves, our hidden facets and fragilities, to the surface. Like biological processes, these connections evolve and move us through life, just as the juggling balls move through space.

Charmaine Nicole Hiller - The Cocoon of Childhood

The Cocoon of Childhood explores nostalgia and the process of reclaiming playfulness in adulthood against the backdrop of dystopia and destruction. Alternating between choreographed phrases and scored improvisation, eight dancers find collective rhythm through reimagining childhood games. They whisper, laugh, create handshakes that transform into percussive sequences, and learn to hold each other close again, in a bid to reconnect with the joy and wisdom of a childhood filled with hope, giving into instinct, and feeling everything so fully.

Hongxi Li – Itch

Itch turns the familiar and awkward act of scratching into a contagious bodily rebellion, where shame, desire and euphoria erupt. Set within the architectures of everyday city life – an office, the underground, a pub – three strangers cross paths as uncontrollable itching disrupts their identities, roles and routines. Unfolding through surreal absurdity and dark humour, the characters move through embarrassment, intimacy, unexpected sexual arousal and hopelessness. Private shame becomes shared vulnerability as they oscillate between self-suppression and collective rebellion. Produced by Chinese conceptual artist Hongxi Li, Itch marks her physical theatre debut, translating observations of everyday behaviour into a raw movement language.

Thu 18 Feb 7.30pm

Corlee Haverty - An Ode to the Beauty of Memory

An Ode to the Beauty of Memory is a deeply personal exploration of grief, memory, lineage and loss. The work treats choreography and sound as a living system in which grief becomes a site of choreographic potential, giving space to consider our personal histories of grief. The beautiful discontinuity of memory submits a collage of collected images that are constantly being choreographically re-situated, thereby searching for the spaces where memory becomes actionable and embodied: passed through a lineage and held vicariously within the body. In the end, how do we remember a life lived and a person gone?

Jennie Boultbee - The Place from Which

The Place from Which looks at what lies beneath the surface, giving what we see its resonance, mystery and allure. Through movement and sound, the work explores where things begin and how they come into being. Attending to presence and absence, the work embraces the playfulness of the unknown. What remains seen and unseen? Here, absence sparks the imagination, expanding rather than diminishing meaning. The work reveals its own making, unfolding as a dialogue between self and other.

Mia Ostinelli - I Do

A wedding dress and the music of a violin chase the dream of a perfect wedding. Through a feminist and queer lens,I Do explores and challenges the images, rituals, and conventions of the traditional Western wedding. Moving through a series of scenarios infused with irony, the work weaves together movement, live music, and spoken word to navigate the complex emotions surrounding marriage and the ideals attached to it.

Mon 22 Feb 7.30pm

ISADORA – Huella

Huella (meaning trace or imprint) unfolds around an abstract waterfall installation, carrying water’s memory, set at the edge of ecological collapse. Through textural and flamenco soundscapes and eco-poetic symbolism, this performance explores changing bodies and landscapes shaped by ecological grief. Suspended between an altered present and an uncertain future, the waterfall holds play, intimacy, rituals, and human and animal passages alongside contaminated sediments and persistent materials. Huella emerges from the tension of witnessing ecological transformation whilst continuing to inhabit everyday life. It evokes solastalgia: the grief of seeing a beloved place change whilst still calling it home.

Ricky Jinks – The Man

What does it mean to be a man today? Without filter or disguise, The Man brings five men together to explore the complications, beauty and contradictions of masculinity. The title reflects both the men on stage and the powerful figures who have shaped the world around us, asking how these images of masculinity become fragmented within ourselves. Through movement, intimacy and raw honesty, the piece explores sexuality, gender, power and love. Blending street dance and contemporary movement, The Man asks what might happen if we dared to unlearn, heal and reconnect with ourselves, each other and the world we share.

Fleur Hall – Nuss Nuss

Nuss Nuss is an intimate dance-theatre duet exploring the tension between who we are and who we are expected to be. What lies beneath the weight of stereotypes and society’s projections? What happens when the roles we’ve taken on become too uncomfortable? Can we help one another shed the expectations placed upon us and reclaim our individual identities?

Blending partner movement and soft acrobatics, the work explores the exhaustion of code-switching, the pressure to appear strong when we feel fragile, and the fear of being seen.

Tue 23 Feb 7.30pm

Berwyn Cooper – Ponders End, Enfield Bus Garage

Ponders End, Enfield Bus Garage drags us into the mind of a passenger, journeying alongside a quiet protagonist through an off-kilter, hazy reality. Windows creak, relentless tannoys bleat, and the hum of everyday life blends seamlessly with a meditative yet tense original score.

Enter an ever-evolving space, seemingly held together by the threads of one man’s mind, as the set transforms into an endless stretch of seats disappearing into the void. Streetlights flash by, cutting through the darkness and briefly illuminating a cast of seemingly unremarkable commuters.

Kelsey Hydro Miller – Thank You Dad / Art of influence P.2

Follow a young Black man as he navigates relationships, childhood trauma, trials and tribulations on his journey from boyhood to manhood, and ultimately, fatherhood. Through the explosive energy of hip hop and dance theatre, Thank You Dad is a sequel to Art of Influence and explores the experiences and influences that shape us, and the lasting impact they have on us.

The Alternate Collective- all the right moves

This is NOT a social experiment. It’s a Bharatanatyam-inspired game. The Alternate Collective invites you to make 'all the right moves'. Three women navigate shifting rules, unexpected obstacles and impossible choices in this game. Perhaps being a woman today isn’t so far from being inside a video game: constantly having to anticipate new demands and adapting to changing stakes. And, of course, doing it all with resilience and grace. Are you ready to play?

Wed 24 Feb 7.30pm

Sarah Hirsch – Adira

Adira is an all-female contemporary dance work exploring strength, vulnerability, femininity and collective resilience. Through a physically dynamic movement language, the dancers move between moments of power, softness, tension and release, revealing the many ways strength can be expressed. The work explores the relationships between women, the support we find in one another, and the complexity of holding both vulnerability and power at once. Created and choreographed by Sarah Hirsch, Adira reflects on the beauty, contradictions and resilience of female experience: it is a celebration of sisterhood and the strength that emerges when women move, struggle and stand together.

Jayde Edwards – Infatuation

Infatuation is a solo work derived from the mind of its protagonist, the Queen. Trapped by the King inside a room in a mental asylum, she takes the audience on an edge-of-your-seat spectacle, questioning whether her love is strong enough to wait for him to set her free, or whether the hatred born from his deception is powerful enough to end her suffering? Caught between love, obsession and betrayal, the Queen breaks the fourth wall, drawing the audience into the room with her. She shifts between sadness and madness, inviting us to question what is real and what is imagined.

Luis Odriozola - Rest(less)

What can happen after an out-of-body experience? Approaching dissociation not as a malfunction to be fixed, but as a threshold to unknown possibilities and a passage towards transformation, Rest(less) explores a paradox: the fear of leaving the physical body, and the longing to escape its limitations. Rest(less) invites us to rethink our relationship with time and pain, and to embrace the uncertainty of a process that resists both haste and containment. An intimate periplus into the unconscious; a nocturnal tale told by the fire, unfolding around the desire to achieve something whose very possibility remains unknown.

Thu 25 Feb 7.30pm

Meghna Lokabhirama Nandini Raju and Varun Shivakumar - Kēl

Tamil, Kēḷ (கேள்) means "listen." In Hindi, khel (खेल), said almost the same way, means "play." This Bharathanatyam piece holds both ideas together. Music usually arrives from outside a dancer. Here, two dancers ask what music the body can make itself. You will watch and hear them fill the space with footsteps, breath and voice, building layers of rhythm while they move and play with sound. Part dance, part concert, the work invites you to listen closely and play along in your imagination. No previous knowledge of dance or music is needed to enjoy this piece.

LW | Descendants Jazz Theatre - The Rhythm Home

What if the movement in your feet wasn’t entirely your own?
Presented by LW | Descendants Jazz Theatre, The Rhythm Home maps out the rich history of jazz dance. Writer and choreographer Lana Williams joins forces with artistic director Renako McDonald for this compelling narrative dance theatre. The story unfolds against a thrilling soundtrack of percussion, groove and swing. Sweeping from modern London to the roaring 1930s New York, before diving deep into the 1600s African roots of the genre. Fusing Lindy Hop, hip-hop, and contemporary dance, a dynamic ensemble proves we are all connected by a single, infinite beat.

Maddy Westhead - Pass the Salt

A table for two, a table for who?

Snippets of relationships and encounters spill out in a playfully surreal exploration of the interpersonal. A room where something’s not quite right, a dynamic that’s a little bit off. Pass the Salt explores themes of connection, memory, and identity, anchored around a table. The work investigates how movement and design can work together to engage and provoke audiences, transforming the stage and drawing viewers into a bizarre, camp and tender world that feels both bewilderingly new and strangely familiar.