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Writer's pictureRobert Beale

Dance at the Lowry for spring and summer


Akram Khan's Jungle Book reimagined
Akram Khan's Jungle Book reimagined

The Lowry in Salford has announced its dance programme for spring and summer, with the biggest draw almost certainly to be Strictly Come Dancing’s The Professionals (May 9-10).

The performance showcases the TV show’s 10 professional dancers – Dianne Buswell, Vito Coppola, Carlos Gu, Karen Hauer, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Jowita Przystal and Nancy Xu.

Another high-profile show is Message In A Bottle, a Lowry-co-commission by the Kate Prince Company (July 27-29).

Kate Prince's Message in a Bottle
Kate Prince's Message in a Bottle

Triple-Olivier Award nominee Prince (the director and choreographer behind West End hits Some Like it Hip Hop, Into the Hoods and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie brings a new dance-theatre show inspired by music by Sting, including Every Breath You Take, Roxanne and Walking On The Moon and features dance storytelling powerhouse ZooNation.

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet gives Shakespeare’s timeless story of forbidden love an injection of raw passion and youthful vitality. Premiered in 2019, it returns to the New Adventures repertoire in a visit from July 11-15.

Akram Khan’s Jungle Book reimagined (May 13) is a dance-theatre retelling of Kipling’s classic in a near-future world, in which a family is torn apart as they escape a homeland ravaged by the impact of climate change. Arriving alone in a deserted modern city, with wild animals claiming the street "jungle" as their own, the child discovers unlikely allies. The show features an original score, 10 international dancers and state-of-the-art animation and visuals.


Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet
Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet

Much of the season's programme has international content. The Overhead Project, a German contemporary circus and dance company, is on its first UK tour with a show called What is Left? (March 20).

South Africa’s award-winning Dada Masilo and her company return on March 21-22 with the UK premiere of The Sacrifice, inspired by Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, combining the storyline of the revolutionary early 20th-Century dance classic with the movement of Tswana, the traditional dance of Botswana, to a live, newly-composed score .

The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company comes to the Lowry for two dates (April 24 and May 6), with a third show in the autumn.

In The Power (of) The Fragile (July 1), Tunisia/Brussels-based choreographer Mohamed Toukabri invites Latifa, his mother, with him on stage in a meeting of two worlds, two bodies and two minds. Latifa always dreamed of being a dancer, while Mohamed made it his profession. This performance is part of Shubbak Festival, the UK’s largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture, supported by The Lowry.

Another climate-themed show is from Bert and Nasi on April 26, with The End, a funny and poignant account of climate catastrophe, followed the next day by The Beginning.

Little Murmur, a dance show for the young
Little Murmur, a dance show for the young

And Mama (June 1-2) is the latest work from Olivier award-winning choreographer Botis Seva and Far From the Norm. It plunges audiences into a world in in which dark colonial secrets begin to see the light, and once-loved communities crumble.

There’s also youth dance, and dance for the young: U.Dance Regional North West, the regional youth dance platform, brings two evenings of exciting and diverse performances, on March 25-26; the National Youth Dance Company, with guest artistic director Wayne McGregor, unveils a new work on April 15; and Little Murmur, a new dance theatre show for everyone age 7+, arrives on May 7.


More info and tickets here

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