LEAP returns with suffrage theme, marks 25 years of MDI
THE LEAP contemporary dance festival will return this November, organisers MDI have announced.The theme is suffrage, in a tribute to the suffragette movement marking 100 years since women were first given the right to vote. And in celebration of this, the festival will feature female protagonists in each of the dance performances, all of which are new shows to Liverpool.Sadly, it is also the last LEAP for MDI's artistic director Karen Gallagher, who is stepping down from the role at the end of the year.She said: “This feels quite poignant and yet still exciting after all these years of leading such an amazing organisation and festival. I genuinely believe this is the best yet."Celebrating the power of people, especially women, bringing about change and real transformation is an absolute curatorial gift and I am so excited to share this programme."The festival will mainly take place at venues across Liverpool Hope University's Creative Campus. LEAP 2018 is also part of the #Liverpool2018 celebrations, which marks a decade since our 2008 Capital of Culture year.Each production in the festival will be a Liverpool debut.It all begins at the Capstone Theatre on Friday, November 2 with Liz Aggiss: Slap and Tickle. This award-winning show is a dark and ribald physical comedy examining attitudes towards the visibility of older women.On November 5, a cast of intergenerational women from Liverpool will perform Gaby Agis: Shouting Out Loud at with a soundtrack by seminal punk band The Raincoats. On the same afternoon Gaby Agis and Eva Maria Mutka will perform a duet entitled Close Streams.The Warehouse Studio Theatre plays host to Jo Fong: An Invitation on November 6, an interactive and ever-evolving piece of theatre that invites audiences to engage and develop the performance.Also on November 6 will be a double bill of dance in the form of Laila Diallo: In This Moment and Liz Roche: Wrongheaded.On Thursday November 8, ACE Dance & Music: TEN will be performed at the Capstone Theatre, exploring the concepts of moving away and leaving, looking at how and why people choose unimagined destinies over the lives they always thought they'd live.Olivier Award-nominated Lost Dog’s new show Juliet and Romeo reveals the 'real story' behind the classic love story at the Capstone on November 9. The company's blend of dance, theatre and comedy takes on our obsession with youth and our inevitable issues with longevity.Rosie Kay’s new work MK ULTRA is a high energy, supercharged mash-up inspired by the bizarre realm of pop culture mind control conspiracies, taking a look at myth and popular culture on November 10.Made possible through a Festival Enhancement grant from Culture Liverpool, the festival concludes with Fagin’s Twist from Avant Garde. The untold story of Oliver Twist’s notorious villain comes to the Epstein Theatre on November 12. Street dance meets Victorian workhouse, as choreographer Tony Adigun imagines the childhoods of Oliver Twist’s villains.For further information visit http://www.mdi.org.uk/leap2018
