LEAP Dance Festival 2019 programme revealed

LEAP dance festival returns to the city this autumn promising 10 days of top class local, national and international dance.

The 2019 festival, which runs from October 3-12, will feature seven dance companies and 15 performances at venues across the city.

And new for this year is a LEAP Fringe Festival which will involve two days of pop up dance in unexpected locations along Hope Street.

LEAP is organised by Hope Street-based charity and dance development organisation MDI (formerly known as Merseyside Dance Initiative) and will feature sited and staged work at venues including the Bluecoat, Unity Theatre and Invisible Wind Factory.

It will open on Thursday, October 3 at Hinterlands in the Baltic Triangle when global touring production company, and masters of dance circus, Motionhouse present a special outdoor performance of a new show titled WILD.

Integrating dynamic choreography, acrobatic movement and hand-to-hand partnering, WILD will be staged on top of an ‘urban forest’ of industrial scaffolding.

New Art Club's Cupid's Revenge

LEAP also features New Art Club, presenting Cupid’s Revenge at the Unity on October 3; Seke Chimutengwende and Alexandrina Hemsley’s Black Holes – at the Unity on October 5; Neon Dance’s PuzzleCreature at the Invisible Wind Factory on October 7, and Rosie Kay Dance Company’s Fantasia, coming to the Captstone Theatre on October 8.

Meanwhile visual artist Frances Disley will collaborate with music producer MT Hall and three dance artists from the North West.

The festival will also include performances from MDI’s Merseyside Youth Dance Company and 50 Moves.

MDI Director Martina Murphy said: “Liverpool has long been a city associated with music; from Merseybeat to today’s variety of festivals for every genre imaginable.

“Dance isn’t possible without music, and I want LEAP to make that connection this year - bringing dance to the venues where music never stops, to a city that so clearly wants to dance.”

For more details about the festival and to buy tickets visit the website HERE