“For me, the coming together of many disciplines is part of my reflection on dance,” says Laurent. “It’s a way to give an audience a different axis of approach to a work. There are always several ways to approach the art of movement. Dance can be nothing else but a dancer—no music, no costume, no lights. At the same time, it’s probably the one art form that can be best put together with all the other disciplines. I like to bring both approaches to the stage.”

Varied approaches are indeed borne out in this programme. Young Malagasy dancer-choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana will perform “g r oo v e” (2021) at the Lilian Baylis Studio—a pared-back solo fusing several styles that she admires, including popping and the traditional Madagascan dance Afindrafindrao. In another minimal work, on at the same venue, French dancer-choreographer Georges Labbat will perform “Self/Unnamed” (2022), a duet investigating the dynamics between two bodies, Labbat’s own and his “alter-ego,” a plastic-resin figure. Across town at Sadler’s Wells East, British dancer-choreographer Jules Cunningham will show “Crow/Pigeons” (2025), two works based on themes of marginalisation and invisibility, and the work of the American composers Julius Eastman and Pauline Oliveros.

In other choreographies, the staging and theatrical elements will be more elaborate. Also featuring the music of Julius Eastman, “Outsider” (2024), by French-Algerian dancer-choreographer Rachid Ouramdane, will see the main stage at Sadler’s strung with high wires and slack lines, to be navigated by 20 dancers from Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and four extreme sports athletes. The premise of the piece is an exploration of the limits of the human body, and the individual’s relationship to the “crowd,” and community. Celebrating a long-gone but cherished community, South African dancemaker Robyn Orlin’s  “We Wear our Wheels with Pride…” (2021) is a homage to the exuberant Zulu rickshaw drivers she encountered as a child in the 1970s, in the apartheid era of her home country. A vibrant production, it’ll be performed by South African contemporary dance company Moving into Dance Mophatong at Queen Elizabeth Hall. 

A dedication is also embedded in Pam Tanowitz’s work for the festival, “Neither Drums nor Trumpets” (2025), which will be danced by her company in the Paul Hamlyn Hall of the Royal Opera House. Citing the postmodernist David Gordon as a “mentor” in the programme note, Tanowitz promises to explore “performing rituals” and “ideas of narrative and abstraction” in a space with an eclectic history ranging from flower market to storage area for theatre sets.