Back in July, our Ageless Festival brought dance to four venues across the city inviting audiences to reimagine age. With an inspiring programme of creative workshops, unique experiences and unforgettable performances… the weather wasn’t the only thing heating up over the weekend!  

Beginning in celebratory style with our Welcome and Big Communal Boogie, festival goers shared a dance to tracks chosen by festival contributors. The playlist featured Gypsy Kings’ Bamboléo through to Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic.  

Visiting from North Wales, Cai Tomos and Company Cain’s Ways of Listening workshop invited participants to lean on one another culminating in the group moving together as a wave across the studio. Their later performance of Heartlands/Tir Calon echoed this idea using soft lighting, childhood photos and driftwood to evoke the memories we carry within us.   

“It feels like witnessing a ritual, one that celebrates memory, movement and mutual support.” – The Reviews Hub. 

Holding Wisdom treated us to three solos from Funmi Adewole Elliott’s Juju, a social dance from Lagos, which incorporated everyday movements such as putting money into the hat of the musician, to Allie Herrmann’s funeral inspired Flamenco and Mitul Sengupta’s mesmerising Khatak performance.

For those looking to raise the energy, Keisha Hamilton’s Mass Sass Class offered an introduction to Voguing.  

“The Sass Class was new, the history very interesting. I appreciated the intergenerational connection with Keisha and her mother. I felt invigorated and inspired to find different ways to continue dancing.” – festival attendee  

In the afternoon Bradford Belles and Third Bite Dance gathered to perform on St Peter’s Square for An Obscure Camera. Flexer & Sandiland’s installation invited the audience inside to track their movements using surveillance technology. The performers hid, gathered, danced and stared directly at the camera leading audiences to question whether they were the voyeur or the subject.  

Lizzie Klotz’s new work Abundance indulged in comfort and rest with the intergenerational company rolling in, playing with and dancing over a mass of colourful duvets. All accompanied by looping vocals and live music from Me Lost Me.  

“The dance feels reminiscent of childhood sleepovers; taking over a living room, building forts, playing games, causing a bit of chaos with friends before sprawling into sleep. Definitely, a dance worth rolling out of bed for.” – The Reviews Hub  

Making It showcased community work with a joyful performance co-created by Dance United Yorkshire and a new work choreographed by a Fuse Dance Collective participant exploring ideas of freedom and imprisonment in living with Parkinson’s. Finally, TC Howard reflected on the process of co-creating full-length performances with Yorkshire Dance’s Company of People. 

The first day of the festival concluded at stage@leeds with a provocative career retrospective of Jérôme Bel. Voiced by performer Terry O’Connor, Bel talked us through his artistic process from his notorious self-titled 1995 work which featured onstage urination, shocked reviewers and sold-out audiences through to reflective ‘Véronique Doisneau’ which centres a low ranked ballet dancer performing a background dance whilst discussing her imminent retirement. 

“His deep love of dance as a vehicle to express ideas is earnest, and his ability to evolve as a maker is an astonishing testament to the value of continuing to create as we age.” – The Reviews Hub  

“It was deeply thought provoking about why we make performance, stripping back to the essence of what performance is or can be. Inspiring.” – Festival attendee 

Saturday opened with an Ageless film screening of five short dance films including Jon King’s documentary The Belles and Jonny White’s Still Moving – a creative exploration of ageing as a dancer.  

Bodies of Experience, a workshop with Dawn Holgate and Joanne Bernard, invited participants to choose a word that encapsulated what change means to them and culminated in the group choreographing movement around those ideas.

“The workshop was welcoming, fun, engaging and well facilitated for abilities and learning styles.” – festival attendee

While Jo Fong’s Liveness, this moment workshop led us into the world of improvisation. Participants explored connection using chairs, ropes and tables creating an ever-changing structure of bodies and furniture. 

After a morning of dance, the Abundance team hosted a delicious feast prepared by Sudanese chef Kaltouma Hassaballah. Prompts on edible rice paper invited diners to meet each other and discuss ideas of health, wealth and ritual.

Meanwhile Ageless Encounters welcomed festival goers to connect by sharing meaningful songs before dancing to an eclectic playlist which encompassed Thunderstruck through to Leonard Cohen’s Dancing to the end of love.

The festival’s headline performance, Wild Hope by Yorkshire Dance’s intergenerational Company of People and TC Howard, journeyed through the folklore of the Yorkshire landscape with a stretch of grey silk transforming first into a river, then the cliffs of Malham Cove and finally a cave housing, audience favourite, The Hound.

“I found the whole performance to be extremely moving and beautiful. Every dancer was brilliant. They seemed to move with such intention in what they did. I did feel like it gave me hope for a better world.” – Festival attendee 

Wild Hope was followed by As We Are an upbeat collaboration by Yorkshire Dance’s TEMPO and Dance On Up groups choreographed by Jemma Mae.

In Bird Nerd and The Red List, Marie Louise Flexen transformed into 3 endangered birds sharing simple ways we can all help protect these species by looking where we walk, installing swallow bricks or reporting sightings.  

“With Flexen’s evident skill as a dancer, Bird Nerd and the Red List illustrates how ‘There is beauty to be found in the ordinary and smallest things’ and argues effectively to protect them.” – The Reviews Hub

To close the festival, audiences donned headphones for Susan Kempster’s On the Usefulness or Futility of Looking Backwards. Guided by different audio tracks, at times the audience watched as Susan moved around the stage giving rye and knowing looks while listening to her poignant inner monologue and at others they were invited onstage to join the performance. Raising questions of the self, the collective and the temporary players in our individual experiences the work was a perfect end to a weekend reimagining ageing. 

“A deeply intelligent, silent-disco masterpiece, that provokes thought, allows for genuine immersion and is a total joy to watch.” – The Reviews Hub

“The connection, joy and positiveness it brought to people. Feeling a part of this special event left me feeling inspired and motivated to keep going as I age.” – festival attendee

Our next Encounters Festival is in May 2027, sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear when tickets go on sale. 

All images by David Lindsay