Leeds-based Yorkshire Dance's Ageless Festival next month explores the themes of age and ageing through dance.

It is those qualities that are being celebrated in Yorkshire Dance’s inspiring Ageless Festival which takes place next month at three Leeds venues – Leeds Playhouse, Leeds City College and Yorkshire Dance. Over two days, the festival’s packed programme includes new performances, talks, films, workshops and classes from both local and international dance artists. The festival invites audiences to think about how age can be embraced and interpreted through dance and poses the question: ‘what new stories can bodies tell us as they age?’

It grew out of the organisation’s thinking around how to unite people in divisive times. “After Brexit and Trump a few years ago we realised we wanted to make explicit ways that people from different backgrounds could come together,” says Wieke Eringa, CEO and artistic director of Yorkshire Dance. “We work with different parts of the community and we wanted to create a space where they could hang out together – watch a performance, share food, dance themselves, participate.”

That was the starting point for their encounters festivals, which offered a warm, inclusive and welcoming forum, with plenty of opportunity to dance, and learn. “Because we were doing dedicated work with older adults, one of those encounters was on the theme of age and ageing both from a celebratory point of view but also challenging the assumptions we make about older people.”

It developed from there with the first Ageless Festival taking place in 2019, curated by programmes director Hannah Robertshaw who has also put together this year’s event. “The festival feels even more important and vital than ever,” she says. “Especially after the past two years. A lot of the people who were shielding during the pandemic are performing in the festival, which is amazing.”

The programme has been curated around five key themes: The Political Act of Dancing, The Art and Act of Remembering, Dancing Against the Norm, Boundary Crosssing – and Intergenerational Practice. “We created themes that connect to our existing, ongoing work, but they also come up in other people’s work too,” says Robertshaw. “One of the highlights of the intergenerational strand will be a performance on the Playhouse’s Courtyard stage featuring 60 local people aged between three and 90.” Overall the festival is a thoughtful, considered combination of joy and playfulness alongside a timely probing of resonant issues. “I hope people come away with some new thinking around age, ageing and the ageing body, but also just to have a really good time and enjoy the social aspect,” says Robertshaw. Eringa adds: “It is about making new connections, having new experiences and opening up new possibilities. Many of the older adults we work with say ‘I never imagined I would be doing this.’”

Ageless Festival, July 1 & 2. Details yorkshiredance.com

Impressive line-up

Headlining the festival this year is renowned Senagalese dancer, choreographer and educator Germaine Acogny, often referred to as ‘the mother of African dance’.

There will be a chance to hear her in conversation alongside a screening of the film Iya Tunde which documents her life as a major international figure in dance. She will also be giving a masterclass. Now in her seventies and still dancing, Acogny is a perfect role model for older adults wishing to remain active and engaged with dance.

Other highlights include pop-up performances across Leeds of Strike a Pose, inspired by catwalks and voguing, with a cast of 50 non-professional older adults; a Romanian folk dance workshops with Loredana Larionescu; a Kathak class exploring body percussion and storytelling through dance with Balbir Singh Dance Company; Dancing with Your Grandparents which invites families to move, dance together and make memories in an improvisation workshop; and Instinctive Neighbourhood, a performance bringing together a diverse group of people from Leeds of different ages with choreography by Guilherme Miotto and music from Henk Bakker. Alongside local, regional and national contributors, the festival will see performances and workshops from dance artists from Italy, the Netherlands, Senegal, Romania and Austria.

All the workshops and practical classes are open to everyone, with no previous dance experience necessary. Some events can be booked on a Pay as You Feel basis.