Edinburgh Festival Guide

Listings: Dance

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L.A. Dance Project

A brilliant programme of modern masterworks from one of the hottest names in dance. Benjamin Millepied brings his new company to the UK for the first time, following his huge success as choreographer and star of Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning film Black Swan. L.A. Dance Project is an artist collective founded by…

The Edinburgh Playhouse

Sat 24 Aug

£10–£30 / 0131 473 2000

Sun 25 Aug

£10–£30 / 0131 473 2000

Mon 26 Aug

£10–£30 / 0131 473 2000

Don Quichotte du Trocadéro

José Montalvo combines farce, burlesque and commedia dell’arte for the 21st century with urban and modern dance, film and slapstick comedy in his brilliant new show. Don Quixote, in his fifties, decides to achieve great things and finds himself in the dance halls, or Trocaderos, of Europe – traditional meeting and…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Thu 29 Aug

£12–£30 / 0131 473 2000

Fri 30 Aug

£12–£30 / 0131 473 2000

Sat 31 Aug

£12–£30 / 0131 473 2000

The Rite of Spring

Intense and visceral, Christopher Hampson’s vision of The Rite of Spring, created originally for Atlanta Ballet, is presented 100 years after the original production revolutionised the world of dance and music. Set to Stravinsky’s exhilaratingly influential score, Hampson uses three dancers – two men and a woman – to…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sun 18 Aug

£10–£18 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Art, Science and Performance

Leonardo is celebrated as both an inspired artist and anatomist. This special event considers how contemporary artists, performers and scientists are informed by each other’s work in their exploration of the human body. Part of the Clod Ensemble’s Performing Medicine programme in collaboration with Wellcome Trust.

The Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh

Fri 23 Aug

£15 (£12) / 0131 473 2000

Ceilidhs in Lauriston Hall

With caller Ken Gourlay and ceilidh bands Flaming Heather, HLI, Scott Leslie, Willie Fraser and piper. All dances walked through and called. Cheap bar. Hall has air-conditioning! Fringe groups welcome. www.edinburghceilidhs.co.uk.

Lauriston Hall, Edinburgh

Fri 2 Aug

£8 (£6)

Sat 3 Aug

£8 (£6)

Mon 5 Aug

£8 (£6)

…and 17 more dates back to top

Cest Gelabert Conversation

Choreographer and solo performer Gerhart Bonher on the making of Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sun 18 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Contemporary Classics

Exciting contemporary classics from established choreographers each of whom challenged their own genre of dance. Featuring Christopher Bruce’s 'Shift', an energetic study of 1940s factory workers during the war; Jirí Kylián’s 14´20˝ – a sensual duet of feral beauty and human entanglement taken from the choreographer’s…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Fri 16 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Sat 17 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Mon 19 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Contemporary Classics Conversation

Christopher Hampson and Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at the V&A, inž conversation.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sat 17 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Dance Odysseys

This festival within a festival celebrates the breadth of ballet from classic to contemporary. Featuring a diverse mixture of world premières, including work from Scottish Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre and Gelabert Azzopardi Companyia de Dansa. Part of Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Edinburgh: various venues

Fri 16 Aug

Times & prices vary / 0131 473 2000

Sat 17 Aug

Times & prices vary / 0131 473 2000

Sun 18 Aug

Times & prices vary / 0131 473 2000

…and 1 more date

Dance Odysseys Discussion

An overview of this unique weekend of dance, chaired by Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampson.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Fri 16 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

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Dance on Film Talk

Curator of Dance Odysseys films Nele Hertling shares her thoughts on dance on celluloid.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Mon 19 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Duets

Relationships come into focus in extracts from the canon of Scottish Ballet’s Founding Artistic Director Peter Darrell, and new collaborators James Cousins and Helen Pickett. Darrell’s poignant Five Rückert Songs embodies the feelings in Friedrich Rückert’s poetry on love, loss and loneliness with lingering steps and…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sat 17 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Sun 18 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Édouard Lock: World Premiere (2013)

Scottish Ballet presents a World Premiere from La La La Human Steps Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer Édouard Lock. Lock is renowned for his extreme, incandescent style of dance and his precise technique. His boldly challenging style has always attracted international attention. His creations are an arresting…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Fri 16 Aug

£10–£18 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Forgotten Memories

This is a filmed documentary on Jirí Kylián’s life, way of thinking and most significant creations. Shot in 2011 in The Hague, Prague, Monte Carlo and Paris with Sabine Kupferberg dancing as Kylián rehearses some of his works. Film directed by Christian Dumais-Lvowski and Don Kent.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Fri 16 Aug

£4 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Mon 19 Aug

£4 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

The Green Table/Portrait of Mary Wigman

Choreographed in 1932, The Green Table is known as Kurt Jooss’s masterpiece. In this film of a performance in the 1960s by Folkwang Ballet, the dancers include a young Pina Bausch. Portrait of Mary Wigman: at the end of the roaring twenties Mary Wigman provoked a real revolution in the world of dance.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sat 17 Aug

£4 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Sun 18 Aug

£4 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

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Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I (reconstruction 1996)

Moving through constellations of wood and Plexiglas pillars, reacting in sculptor Vera Röhm’s space Cesc Gelabert recreates Gerhard Bohner’s original concept highlighting elements of dance, visual arts and music while allowing them to remain autonomous. Bach’s 'Well-Tempered Clavier', interpreted by Keith Jarrett…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Mon 19 Aug

£10–£18 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Madame Freedom

European Premiere: A two-dimensional, cinematic black-and-white woman of yesteryear struggles to break free of the social, economic and political straitjacket of the time, while a three-dimensional woman of here and now struggles to what … ? Break free … ? Of what … ? When the unfulfilled soul of a fictional woman surges…

King's Theatre, Edinburgh

Tue 20 Aug

£12–£30 / 0131 473 2000

Wed 21 Aug

£12–£30 / 0131 473 2000

New Voices

World premieres: California’s Helen Pickett – a former dancer for William Forsythe and now Resident Choreographer at Atlanta Ballet – is renowned for energetic yet poetic creations. James Cousins’s contemplative and gripping style has won him the inaugural New Adventures Choreographer Award. Martin Lawrance shares the…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Fri 16 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Sun 18 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Mon 19 Aug

£12 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

New Voices Discussion

A panel of emerging choreographers discusses the New Voices programme, hosted by Dance Base Artistic Director Morag Deyes.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Fri 16 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Physical Thinking: A movement course

After the crowds have gone home, let yourself be ‘moved’ by Leonardo’s drawings. This gallery-based course is led by Suzy Willson, Artistic Director of acclaimed performance company Clod Ensemble.

The Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh

Mon 26 Aug

£30 (£20) / 0131 473 2000

Tue 27 Aug

£30 (£20) / 0131 473 2000

back to top

Pierrot Lunaire (1962)

This seminal work from American dancer and choreographer Glen Tetley was also the starting point of his now iconic choreographic style – combining modern dance with the elongated line and aerial bravura of ballet. It is a style he perfected through his professional career performing leading roles in the Martha Graham…

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sat 17 Aug

£10–£18 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Pierrot Lunaire Talk

Christopher Hampson and Jane Pritchard discuss this seminal work.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sat 17 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

Quad

Written as a television play, Quad is an intricately choreographed movement system with music devised by Samuel Beckett. In this two part event, Pan Pan Theatre Company works with students from Scottish Ballet and mathematician Conor Houghton to present a lecture demonstration of the piece, before Beckett scholar Mark…

The Hub, Edinburgh

Tue 27 Aug

£6 / 0131 473 2000

Part of Beckett at the Festival.

Reflections on Dance Odysseys

Mary Brennan, Dance Critic of The Herald, chairs a discussion with Scottish Ballet Artistic Director Christopher Hampson, Scottish Dance Theatre Artistic Director Fleur Darkin and Dance Base Artistic Director Morag Deyes.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Mon 19 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.

The Rite of Spring Talk

The Rite of Spring Talk with choreographer Christopher Hampson.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Sun 18 Aug

Free / 0131 473 2000

Part of Dance Odysseys.