Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council and Chaos Arts CIC are delighted to announce four new commissions for Leap Dance Festival 2026.
This year, the panel sought to commission work by LGBTQIA+ artists for Queer Moves (1st May at Unity Theatre); a new dance film (to be shared during the festival at events and online); and a community performance working with global majority women. The selected artists are:
Amber Buttery and Owen Gillott
Subverting a traditional Ballroom sequence dance through a queer lens, the work will break away from ‘expected’ gender roles in partner dance and celebrate queer identity. The project combines live performance, community participation and a dance film. See it at Queer Moves, Friday 1st May at Unity Theatre.
Rowena Gander
Collaborating with director Izzie Major, Gander will create a physical theatre piece exploring the impact of narcissistic abuse and objectification on an individual’s sense of self, agency, and bodily autonomy. They will use real stories, collected through ethically‑facilitated community conversations, as the emotional and structural basis of the piece. See it at Queer Moves, Friday 1st May at Unity Theatre.
Dawn Holgate
Dawn will develop a new work with The Dancing Queens; a community group of Global Majority women based at The Caribbean Centre in Toxteth. The work will integrate dance, live song and embodied storytelling to explore radical Black joy, resilience and collective care, alongside powerful narratives of womanhood. The performance will celebrate how Black women move, express and define themselves — affirming identity, voice, strength and lived experience across generations in Liverpool.
Tom Shennan
“It is a Tuesday in Liverpool, and I am still the wind…” this dance film will personify the wind and its distanced, yet tactile, perspective on the people that make up Liverpool. The film, shot entirely in L8 using drones, will feature dance artist Shivaangee Agrawal blending Bharatanatyam (Indian Classical Dance) and Contemporary in a performance that speaks to the experience of living in multicultural Toxteth. The film will be accessible throughout the festival online.
Paul Doyle, Director of Leap Dance Festival says “Since Leap’s return in 2024, we have commissioned 27 new works in collaboration with Culture Liverpool, from community groups to professional artists. This year, as a queer led organization, we’re particularly proud to be commissioning works by three LGBTQIA+ artists for our Queer Moves event at Unity Theatre”.
The grants have been made possible thanks to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The full programme for Leap Dance Festival is now live. Find out more and book tickets at: https://www.leapfestival.co.uk/
Categories: 2026 | Festivals & Events | Music & Dance
