The enchanted world of Sleeping Beauty will be just one of the visually stunning productions brought to life at Dance City this Autumn/Winter.
From beautiful ballet to powerful, award-winning contemporary dance pieces and the return of the North East’s biggest Breaking competition and community Hip-Hop event, our new Autumn/Winter season has something for everyone.
The season kicks off on 29 September with the award-winning show Natural Behaviour, a collection of performed portraits of human and non-human life forms by dance theatre company Thick and Tight.
Somewhere between a variety show and a biology essay, Natural Behaviour is a queer look at what it means to be natural or unnatural, highlighting the essential role of diversity in all life.
Thick and Tight’s distinctive mixture of dance, satire, impersonation and poetry delivers the outrageous, the beautiful, the hilarious and the profound. The line-up for the evening includes two moths, a pantomime horse, the dust in Quentin Crisp’s room, some flies on the wall, a lamenting songbird, a blade of grass and a lesbian seagull.
Meanwhile, 31 October will see the North East’s biggest Breaking competition and community Hip-Hop event return, Triple Threat – Newcastle Vice. Returning after last year’s sell-out event, it celebrates dance, music and all elements of Hip-Hop culture and will see UK and International B-boys and B-girls battle it out at the family friendly event.
On 11 November, award-nominated dancers and choreographers, James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight (PCK Dance) will bring Into the Light to Dance City. Known for their electrifying style and international performances across Europe, Asia and the US, James and Travis present two contrasting works, united by their bold physicality and striking design.
In Vessel, three bodies move through cycles of emergence, resistance and surrender. Movement, live music and light will converge to form a living landscape where sound, space and physicality become inseparable.
In the Absence will be performed on a vast mirrored floor of fragmented silver confetti. The landscape will become a metaphor for two dancers as they navigate memory and renewal, inviting audiences to reflect on human resilience in moments of change.
Mother Forest by Rebellious Bodies on 17 November is a striking once-in-a-lifetime ensemble piece where three generation of butoh lineage will come together to pay homage to Kazuo Ohno, one of the key founding figures of butoh and his philosophy of dance as something spontaneous and unrepeatable.
27 November brings TWAWSI: The World As We See It from ACE Dance and Music a new double bill presenting two powerful contrasting visions of our world today.
Echoes of Dust will feature a world torn apart by war, disaster and the invisible collapse of human connection, while Letlalo will draw from African, Indigenous, and contemporary dance languages to explore the deep connection between humanity and the earth.
Finally, the much-anticipated Ballet Cymru will make a welcome return with an enchanted world of love, magic and destiny in Sleeping Beauty from 3 to 5 December. The company will reimagine the classic fairy tale of a young princess spellbound by a curse.
Touching on themes of love, acceptance and what it means to be different, the ballet will be swept along by Tchaikovsky’s iconic score. It will feature innovative choreography, exceptional dancing, distinctive costumes and immersive projections.
