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From high-energy Afrodance to beautiful ballet, energetic hopak to vibrant vogueing, experience a day in the life of Liverpool through exhilarating dance. Dancers, choreographers and troupes, both professional and enthusiast, use pavements and landmarks as their stage to perform exciting work and showcase the beating heart of the city. Kicking off with a unique dawn commute, three dancers from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts - founded in 1996 by Sir Paul McCartney - dance their way to school from the famous Mersey ferry to the city centre. Matthew Ball, Liverpudlian and principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, returns to his hometown with fellow principal and dance partner Mayara Magri to perform a premiere of his own choreographed piece, (Re)Current, at the iconic St George’s Hall. Local choreographer Alyx Steele takes a break from her tour with the Sugababes and brings her style of poppy commercial street-dance to the city’s River of Light festival. Liverpool-born Jane Tiplov and her Ukrainian husband Anton step off the Riverdance stage to perform a high-speed traditional Ukrainian hopak dance on Liverpool’s famous Hope Street. Taking the ferry across the Mersey, the industrial beauty of Birkenhead’s Hydraulic Tower becomes the stage for Sheetal Maru’s haunting blend of Indian and contemporary dance in a premiere of her dance film, Onus. Inside another iconic building, a group of male dancers aged 50 plus take over the bell tower of Liverpool Cathedral, telling the story of the men behind the building; and at the Vogue Ball, House of Suarez curate a night of high-energy fashion, dance and vogueing, received with wild enthusiasm by the crowd. Jamaican-born contemporary dancer Akeim Toussaint Buck takes dance to the people of Liverpool, performing a specially choreographed piece set to original music and poetry written for the programme, from St Luke’s Bombed Out Church to St George’s Hall. Manchester-based contemporary dance group Company Chameleon bring their trademark brand of outdoor performance to the brutalist architecture of the Metropolitan Cathedral with their new piece Umbra. Liverpool’s own Afrodance Academy rev up the BPM with their exciting mix of dancehall and Afrofusion on the Pier Head. And fittingly, the programme closes with Robert Carter of the legendary Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo - the world’s foremost all-male comic ballet company - dancing the Dying Swan, a uniquely humorous and moving take on a ballet classic
