LEAP festival dances back in to Liverpool for 2018
LEAP Dance Festival returns to Liverpool this autumn with ‘female focussed’ programme under the theme Suffrage!
Along with it being the centenary of some women first winning the vote, festival producer MDI is also marking the organisation’s 25th anniversary in the city in 2018.
In addition, LEAP is also part of Liverpool 2018, marking 10 years since the city’s Capital of Culture year, and MDI has planned a busy programme for the 10-day event running from November 2-12.
The festival begins at the Capstone Theatre in Shaw Street on Friday, November 2 with the award-winning dark physical comedy Liz Aggiss: Slap and Tickle.
Meanwhile on Monday, November 5 a cast of intergenerational women from Liverpool will perform Gaby Agis: Shouting Out Loud at The Great Hall at Liverpool Hope’s Creative Campus, with a soundtrack by seminal punk band The Raincoats. On the same afternoon Gaby Agis and Eva Maria Mutka will perform a duet entitled Close Streams.
Other performances include Jo Fong: An Invitation, and a double bill of dance in the form of Laila Diallo: In This Moment and Liz Roche: Wrongheaded (pictured above, by Ewa Figaszewska), all on November 6, ACE Dance & Music: TEN on November 8, and Olivier Award-nominated Lost Dog’s new show Juliet and Romeo on November 9.
On November 10 you can enter the hypnotic world of MK ULTRA, with Rosie Kay’s new work a high energy, supercharged mash-up of thrilling dance, music and imagery.
And the festival concludes at the Epstein Theatre with Fagin’s Twist, the untold story of Dickens’ villain where street dance meets Victorian workhouse at the hands of choreographer Tony Adigun and Avant Garde.
The festival will mark the final year at MDI for artistic director Karen Gallagher who has championed the development of dance across the Liverpool city region for three decades.
She said: “This feels quite poignant and yet still exciting after all these years of leading such an amazing organisation and festival. I genuinely believe this is the best yet.
“Celebrating the power of people especially women bringing about change and real transformation is an absolute curatorial gift and I am so excited to share this programme.”
More details from the website HERE