Dance City is proud to announce its spectacular Spring/Summer 2020 theatre programme, showcasing a diverse range of work across a myriad of different styles, with offerings from local, national and international artists.

The programme is full of Contemporary offerings including the return of National Dance Company Wales with their latest triple bill KIN, Geneva based Beaver Dam Company with FORWARD/Into Outside and Art Of Spectra’s Tension to name just a few. Hip Hop enthusiasts can enjoy Breakin’ Convention’s Open Art Surgery, while little ones and their families are in for a treat with The D Project’s delightfully playful HEDGE.

After last year’s sell-out success Dance City is delighted to be welcoming back Curious Arts’ Vogue Ball, followed this year by a Family Vogue Ball to give children and their families the chance to get involved in the region’s vibrant LGBTQ+ and Vogue community.

This season sees an abundance of home grown talent with the biggest line up of works created in the North East than ever before including performances from Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre Company, The D Project and Surface Area Dance. In celebration Dance City will be offering an exclusive promotion for the season ‘All MINE For £39’ offering the chance to purchase tickets to all 6 of the season’s ‘Made In The North East’ (‘MINE’) shows for just £39, saving £26 on full retail price.

Season Launch Event
A fun and informative evening of dance, film and presentation
Tuesday 11 February, 6pm

Dance City will be kicking off the season with its semi-annual Season Launch Event, giving audiences a taste of what’s to come in a fun and informative evening introducing the shows ahead with video projections, live performances and presentations from the Dance City team and some special guests.

This is a great evening for those who are new to dance and new to Dance City, providing a unique insight into the inner workings of the organisation as well as the exiting work it programmes. Tickets are just £2.50 (or free to members) which includes complimentary drinks and nibbles as well as an exclusive 10% discount to all shows booked on the night.

Open Art Surgery – Breakin’ Convention
Witness cutting-edge hip hop theatre as it happens
Saturday 22 February, 7.30pm

Open Art Surgery is hip hop theatre dissected, examined and put under the microscope, giving audiences the chance to witness cutting-edge hip hop theatre as it happens!

After spending a week working under the guidance of some of the UK’s leading Hip Hop theatre mentors, established and emerging artists present a brand new piece. See it for the first time, hear their creative journey and then share
feedback in a live audience discussion.

Open Art Surgery is about breaking down the fourth wall and showcasing raw talent and new work. Work that has appeared at Open Art Surgery has gone on to feature in Resolution, Just Jam, Edinburgh Fringe and Breakin’ Convention’s international touring.

KIN – National Dance Company Wales
Three powerful pieces of contemporary dance
Saturday 29 February, 7.30pm
Sunday 1 March, 2pm

National Dance Company Wales will be returning to Dance City with an eclectic triple bill, celebrating dance that connects us and brings people, families, friends, clubs, teams, tribes and communities together. The company will perform poetry, sport and politics across three powerful pieces of dance.

Rygbi: Yma / Here is uplifting: full of hope, glory and camaraderie. It celebrates the pride and passion that rugby players and fans experience together.

Lunatic is an energetic riot. It is fun, relevant and fired up. It smashes together 30’s music and style with 90’s pop culture. First shown 10 years ago it is fuelled by questions surrounding nationality, gender and class.

Time and Time and Time is elegant. Dancers reveal a shimmering poem about the relationship between the history of time and the poetry of destiny.

Forward/ Into Outside – Beaver Dam Company
Wild instinctiveness with precise movement
Thursday 5 March, 7.30pm

Geneva-based Beaver Dam Company will present a double bill with FORWARD and Into Outside. Multi award winning choreographer Edouard Hue is known for his virtuosity of movement, combining both urban and contemporary styles.

Into Outside explores the minutia of group dynamics and what it means to be valuable to society. In FORWARD, the dancer is overwhelmed with the desire to keep moving forwards – an obsession brought to life through the body.

Both works express a wild instinctiveness presented through precise, demanding movement. Guests can also book onto a free pre – show talk to hear directly from the choreographer.

Familiar – Gillie Kleiman & Greg Wohead
A twinset of performances from two critically acclaimed artists
Thursday 12 March, 7.30pm

Familiar is a twinset of performances on significant otherness. One authored by Kleiman and performed by Wohead, the other authored by Wohead and performed by Kleiman, the two are twisted together with the help of story, song and spit.
Set amongst an original design by celebrated artist Tim Spooner, the works in Familiar play out what it means to be companions, where we think we know everything about each other whilst facing the fact that we can’t.

This is a new evening of performance by two critically acclaimed artists, collaborating for the first time. This performance will be BSL interpreted.
*Part of ‘All MINE for £39’

Mapdance 2020
A set of exciting new works from a dynamic young company
Thursday 26 March, 7.30pm

Mapdance, the University of Chichester’s internationally touring postgraduate company, presents a set of three exciting new commissioned works by Gary Clarke, Ceyda Tanc and Noa Shadur plus a revival of Inside the Animal by Jose Agudo.

Mapdance is an established group of dynamic young dancers. Their diverse repertoire offers audiences a refreshing mixture of gritty dance-theatre, wry humour, and both intricate and questioning choreography. It is a programme that will appeal to both seasoned dance viewers and audiences new to dance.

Tension – Art Of Spectra
A breath-taking work that challenges the laws of physics
Saturday 2 May, 7.30pm

What happens when we are restricted by our rooms? When our bodies are charged with energy and tension in relation to each other?

Renowned Swedish company, Art of Spectra, delves into the big and difficult questions that characterise our time. Tension challenges and stresses the laws of physics as the phenomenal dance artists invite spectators to experience moments that vibrate with fragile proximity.

Peter Svenzon has created almost 40 dance works since he started Art of Spectra in 1998. His works are characterise by strong physical and multifaceted expressions where dance, music, video projections and visual art are combined in a near cinematic flow.

What Songs May Do – Rendez-vous Dance
An inclusive dance piece that celebrates love
Thursday 7 May, 7.30pm (pre-show community performance from 7pm)

What songs may do… is the highly anticipated first fullevening production by award-winning choreographer and former National Dance Company Wales dancer: Mathieu Geffré. This duet tells the story of a gay couple attending the concert Nina Simone gave at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976.

This is an invitation to experience Simone’s concert through the dancers’ emotional and physical journey amongst a cast of 15 local community members. Poetic, passionate, physical and emotional, What songs may do… is an inclusive dance piece that celebrates love in all its diversity.
*Part of ‘All MINE for £39’

Double Bill – The Collective
A double bill from Dance City’s brand new postgraduate company
Saturday 16 May, 7.30pm

The Collective is a brand new touring, postgraduate company based at Dance City. This dynamic new company will be performing two works made especially for them by some of the most exciting and relevant physical theatre companies of today, including Lost Dog and Mischief Company.
*Part of ‘All MINE for £39’

Suitcases – Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre Company
A moving exploration of the people behind the Willard Asylum suitcases
Saturday 23 May, 7.30pm

In 1995, The Willard Asylum, New York, closed its doors after a century of treating those deemed unfit for civilized society. Discovered in an attic, the suitcases of 427 Willard patients were found. Beautifully preserved epitaphs to a few of those who lived and died at the Willard asylum and a poignant remembrance of the lives they left outside.

Drawing inspiration from four of the suitcases found, Hit The Ground Running’s new theatrical performance is a moving exploration of the people behind the suitcases and plays homage to innocent lives lived and lost to mental illness.
*Part of ‘All MINE for £39’

Behind the Face of a Rock, Throwing Stones – Surface Area Dance Theatre
Language, sensation, contemplation and physical expression through movement
Saturday 6 June, 7.30pm

Language, sensation, contemplation, physical expression through movement and wearable technology are all themes explored in this piece.

As a collective of hearing and Deaf artists, the group begin to physically interpret the proposition of using the entire body as a listening instrument, capable of feeling, touching and seeing the colours and textures of sound.
*Part of ‘All MINE for £39’

HEDGE – The D Project
A playful and engaging family show for children aged 4+
Saturday 20 June, 1.30pm & 4.30pm

Meet a hedgehog waking up from hibernation…and everything is not as it once was. Welcome to a story about bravery and adventure, in a world that is ever changing. Get involved, get attached, and see the world through tiny eyes!

HEDGE draws in children and adults, combines the magic of dance and puppetry to create a playful, friendly atmospheric performance space for young ones, where they will be encouraged to explore their surroundings and be taken on the hedgehog’s story as it discovers how to be brave.
*Part of ‘All MINE for £39’

OUT – Rachel Young
Reclaiming Dancehall and celebrating Vogue culture
Wednesday 1 July, 7.30pm

‘**** a powerfully eloquent dance dialogue… performed with both calm reserve and concentrated intensity’ – The Stage
Defiantly challenging homophobia and transphobia, OUT is a duet – a conversation between two bodies, carving out a new kind of space, reclaiming Dancehall and celebrating Vogue culture amongst the bittersweet scent of oranges.

“We’re shape-shifting in a bid to fit in; to be black enough, straight enough, Jamaican enough…” Embracing personal, political and cultural dissonance; this act of interdisciplinary self-expression smashes through normativity, summoning voices and re-enacting movements in an exhilarating mash-up of remembrance and re-invention.

Winner of the 2017 South East Dance A Place to Dance Brighton Fringe Award and nominated for the 2017 Total Theatre & The Place Award for Dance. Part of Curious Festival 2020.

Vogue Ball – Curious Arts
The ultimate celebration of North East LGBTQ and Vogue Culture
Saturday 11 July, 8.30pm

Curious Arts return to Dance City for the ultimate celebration of North East LGBTQ and Vogue Culture – the 4th annual Curious Vogue Ball!

Community participants and professional vogue houses from across the North take the catwalk to serve unique looks and vogue the night away at the fiercest party North of the Tyne.

Voguing is a highly stylised, modern house dance developed in the 1980’s by LGBTQ people of colour, to create and own their own space, becoming a celebration of their culture. Part of Curious Festival 2020.

Curious & Chalk Family Vogue Ball
A celebration of identity for all the family
Sunday 12 July, 1pm

Curious Arts and Chalk present The Family Vogue Ball.
Craft your own costumes, design your own house crest, adorn yourself in glitter and get ready to show us what you’ve got!
There’ll be demos and performances from Vogue Houses to give you some ideas before you and your tribe have your chance to take to the stage!

This event is Autism Friendly – headphones and quiet spaces available.
Part of Curious Festival 2020.

All performances are available to book now. Visit www.dancecity.co.uk or call 0191 261 0505 to find out more about Dance City’s full range of classes, workshops and events.