Liverpool Leaps again

Akeim Toussaint Buck

Described as Liverpool city region’s leading dance event, the 16-day Leap Dance Festival returns at a variety of theatres, cultural venues and public spaces, with local artists, community groups and young people taking part as well as national and international dance organisations.

It opens on April 24, when the Cathy Waller Company brings its new touring work You and Us to the Capstone Theatre at Liverpool Hope University’s Creative Campus in Everton.

On April 30 the Unity Theatre sees part of the 2026 Liverpool Dance Prize, part of Leap’s commitment to developing upcoming talent and the ambition to make Liverpool a regional hub for dance, followed on May 1 by Queer Moves, which promises new Leap

commissions by three LGBTQIA+ artists.

Dancing at the Palm House

Two commissions showcased at Leap come from artist and film-maker Tom Shennan and choreographer and dance educator Dawn Holgate. One is a film accessible online throughout the festival, featuring dance artist Shivaangee Agrawal, who blends contemporary with classical Indian dance to speak to the experience of living in multicultural Toxteth; while Dawn Holgate is working with the Dancing Queens, a community group based at Toxteth’s Caribbean Centre. Her piece will be presented as a curtain raiser at the Unity Theatre on May 2, when Akeim Toussaint Buck opens the second week of the festival with Windows of Displacement, an autobiographical solo blending dance, song and spoken word.

Phoenix Dance Theatre presents its Interplay show at Liverpool Playhouse on May 8 (see here for more info), and Knowsley artists enact a Shakespeare North Takeover at the Prescot playhouse on May 9, when the festival also comes to a close with the Leap 2026 Big Burlesque Cabaret.

Other events include a Youth Dance Showcase on April 25 at the City of Liverpool College Arts Centre; a free Dancing at the Palm House event on April 26 at Sefton Park Palm House; a Schools Dance Platform on April 28 at Liverpool Lighthouse; and a free Dancing in the Streets on May 4 at Liverpool ONE.

Leap Dance Festival is organised and presented by Chaos Arts, which started life in 2007 as an all-male dance group at Cardinal Heenan School and has since supported thousands of people across the city region.

More info and tickets here