As Dance Umbrella reveals its 2025 programme (2–31 October), Artistic Director Freddie Opoku-Addaie speaks about access, politics in programming, and why new voices matter.
“This year’s Festival brings together a vibrant mix of perspectives that highlight just how connected our lived experiences really are,” says Freddie Opoku-Addaie. “Artists, creatives, and their wider communities help join the dots in an increasingly divided world, creating space for us to tune into the humanity within ourselves and in others. Seeing and feeling the power of that interconnectedness across London and beyond, is what keeps us going.”
For the co-CEO and Artistic Director of Dance Umbrella, now in its 47th year, the annual international dance festival is more than a showcase. It’s a platform for new voices, a mechanism for access, and—just as importantly—a testbed for how dance can challenge and connect audiences in a global city.
Running 2–31 October, the 2025 programme is heavy with premieres and collaborations: Andrea Peña & Artists’ BOGOTÁ at Sadler’s Wells East, Change Tempo at the Barbican, Gesualdo Passione in the Barbican Hall, and new works from Tjimur Dance Theatre, Elena Antoniou, and Brazilian collaborators Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira. Yet for Opoku-Addaie, the listings are only part of the picture. What matters is how those works land, who gets to see them, and what conversations they spark.
New voices to a global city
“Introducing new voices to London stages has been our aim for 47 years now,” he says. “I think that while we do get a lot of international work and UK-based artists’ work in London, there’s always so much excitement about introducing an international artist to our global city. This year, we’re adding more to that list. To think about what other venues or other artists they may connect with during their time with Dance Umbrella is really exciting.”
For him, the programme is about more than the premiere itself. “Critical acclaim is important, but this is a journey. At Dance Umbrella, we’re here to facilitate that journey, to support artists to meet London and the wider UK audiences. The conversations and connections that can build for both artists and audiences is probably what excites me more than anything else.”
He cites the return of Elena Antoniou and Amala Dianor, both of whom have established reputations in the festival, alongside new commissions. “We’re going back to Shoreditch Town Hall with Elena Antoniou’s work LANDSCAPE and Amala Dianor making a welcomed return with a debut collaboration with Les Arts Florissants for Gesualdo Passione at Barbican Hall which I’m really excited for. We have a first-time collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery, with Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira’s Repertorio N.1 which is a new commission. I have the same anticipation as the audience will coming into the theatre to see that work for the first time.”
“Critical acclaim is important, but this is a journey. At Dance Umbrella, we’re here to facilitate that journey…”
Freddie Opoku-Addaie
Balancing politics and the personal
Opoku-Addaie is candid about the fact that programming is never neutral. “With my lived experience as an artist, that comes as part of being in this role. There’s many things that I bring to the table that are also needed now. So I can’t be ignorant to those things as well. So it’s impossible not to be political.”
At the same time, he insists that authenticity is the key. “As long as [artists] really hold true to their core, their lived experience and practice. I like to say it’s not appropriation, it’s about appreciation in that way as well. So how do we hold space for that conversation? I think that goes across the board regardless of where you’re from.”
This conviction runs through his account of the artists he supports. “The artists stand solidly with their work because even if they get a one-star review, they are very clear on what their vision is and where they want to go with it. They’re not swayed by critical acclaim, or how audiences react, because they have a clear vision. Those artists and creatives pushing canon in widening the conversation… to me that’s political.”
He smiles at the memory of artists whose work took time to find its moment. “There’s many artists that I’ve seen in work and I think, maybe this is not the work for right now, but then they’ve done something else and I think yeah this will work. I think even if it’s not a big P, the small p is always playing around because how we see work on stage is reflected offstage as well.”
Highlights, framed through context
When asked what in the programme might surprise regular Dance Umbrella audiences, he is reluctant to narrow it down. “I think every single work does that in different ways,” he says. “Andrea Peña’s BOGOTÁ looks at Colombia’s political history. We’re hosting a day of workshops at Brixton House to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1985 Brixton Uprising. We’ve also got Change Tempo which is a brilliant double bill of work by Lilian Steiner and La Chachi. La Chachi mixes the traditional form of flamenco with a kind of tongue-in-cheek, contemporary, modern angle.
“We’ve also got Amala Dianor with Gesualdo Passione. I’m interested to see how audiences will receive the music, and the score.”
He circles back to his own curatorial lens. “Whenever I’m looking to commission work, I’m always thinking about how it’ll shift the venues and their audiences’ assumptions of dance. Our partnership with Serpentine for Repertório N.1 and LANDSCAPE at Shoreditch Town Hall exemplifies this.”
Expanding access: £10 tickets and the Digital Pass
For 2025, Dance Umbrella introduces a limited number of £10 tickets at every live performance. Opoku-Addaie frames it as essential. “Making things accessible for everyone across the board, regardless of your background, we’re hoping that people will be able to think ‘yeah, I’ll give this a go!’ or ‘Oh great this year this means I can see more than one show.’ They’ll have to be quick since we expect them to get snapped up quickly but also they might buy a digital pass for as little as £5 and try out a dance film or panel discussion.”
That sense of affordability is as much about community as economics. “There’s a lot of choice in London, and it’s not cheap,” he acknowledges. “Coming to a show gives people a sense of community and connection. We want to be affordable across generations and this direct access is vital.”
The digital strand this year has been expanded, with access extended for an extra month beyond the festival dates. It includes Andrea Peña’s award-winning triptych 6.58: MANIFESTO, Amala Dianor and Grégoire Korganow’s Nioun Rec, and a site-specific film version of Tjimur Dance Theatre’s bulabulay mun?. There are also curated series from HSIEH I-Hsuan and Emily Shin-Jie Lee, and from Charles Linehan of the London International Screen Dance Festival, alongside a podcast on class and dance hosted by Dr Laura Griffiths and Dr Rachel Krische.
“With my lived experience as an artist, that comes as part of being in this role. There’s many things that I bring to the table that are also needed now. So I can’t be ignorant to those things as well. So it’s impossible not to be political.”
Freddie Opoku-Addaie
London’s dance ecology
Since its founding in 1978, Dance Umbrella has helped shape how and where dance is seen in London. Opoku-Addaie is quick to recognise that legacy. “The festival has played a remarkable role in doing that since 1978. Let’s give credit to that, because many of the artists that are household names now were introduced through Dance Umbrella. This has implicitly and explicitly opened up non-traditional venues that would otherwise be programming dance and ever-evolving practices across 12 months of the year, not just October when the festival takes place.”
He notes the continuing expansion of that geography. “We’re back at Brixton House and Shoreditch Town Hall this year, and there is a surprise new DU venue: Porchester Hall, in collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery. For me, the Serpentine will be exciting because the majority of audiences won’t be familiar with the festival and also the artist making their UK debut with this world premiere, so we won’t be familiar with the crowd and its temperature. It’s all of us figuring holding space for lived experiences that are not familiar to our own, meaning we’re doing something right.”
Advice for artists
Towards the end of our Q&A, Opoku-Addaie reflects on what artists need if they want to be part of Dance Umbrella’s future. “The crafted generous invitation of the artists to widen all our curious minds through movement and dance practices is a good start, and of course context and the right timing,” he says. “We live in a ‘readily available’ information age, but as artists you should hold yourself accountable to ensure that you understand your context and whether it aligns with your lived experience or not and be ready to engage in the discourse.”
He insists that politics cannot be avoided. “I really don’t believe artists who say their work is not political or the system has crafted this privileged space. I think artists make the work they want to make knowing that it’s coming from something that’s burning inside of them, that you want to get out there and that you can see clearly in an artist’s work.”
The point, he says, is persistence and integrity. “Sometimes I don’t know who the artists are or where they’re coming from but there’s something about them that just makes me want to know more. So keep on finding ways to make your work. It doesn’t always have to be a big budget. Be open to receiving support, maintain your integrity and open yourself up to what’s out there.”
A final invitation
He closes with a characteristically expansive gesture. “There’s a lot of work that we’re presenting across the digital as well as live and ‘in conversation’ strands,” he says. “I hope audiences get to understand and know a bit more about the artists and what they want to say with their work by coming to live events and deep diving into our expansive digital programme too at a few movements of figure!:”
For Opoku-Addaie, the festival is both showcase and meeting ground: a chance to hold space for difference, and to remind audiences that dance is as much about connection as choreography. I’ll leave the final words to Freddie…
“Overall, I hope the festival creates a space where we can all coexist and celebrate our differences as well as similarities. I think that’s really important right now.”
Featured Image: DU25 Amala Dianor, Gesualdo Passione, credit Vincent-Pontet
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