Ageless Festival at Yorkshire Dance

Taking place this July, Ageless Festival is a 2-day event featuring a wide range of critically-acclaimed artists, filmmakers and speakers who are reimagining age through dance.

Founded in 2019,  the festival is a glorious celebration of all of the local, national and international work that Yorkshire Dance has developed with older people in Leeds and across Yorkshire.

Now in its third edition, Ageless 2024 is a jam-packed festival of performances, workshops and events taking place at venues across Leeds. Yorkshire Dance are passionate about making dance accessible for everyone – so all events are pay-what-you-can.

Headlining Ageless on Friday 12 July is a double bill of new dance. The first piece, Mother by Susan Kempster is an intergenerational duet exploring the dynamics of age and our perception of the body. The second performance, One Woman Wrestling has been created by Lisa Kendall and explores 33 years of dance, reflecting on what was there and what is now.

Friday evening also brings a thrilling triple bill celebrating the creativity of older adults in the North. Expect to see new pieces from community dance companies, including Leeds’ Performance Ensemble, Third Bite Dance from Sheffield and Liverpool’s Men!Dancing!

On Saturday 13 July, Ageless hosts 40/40 by Two Destination Language. Supported by three brilliant female choreographers – Liz Aggiss, Lucy Suggate and Rachel Krische, 40/40 explores Katherina Radeva’s 40 years as a woman, a migrant and an artist. From the little girl dancing at her parents’ student parties, to the teenage rhythm gymnast who was body-shamed, to the creative who refuses to be categorised.

Also on Saturday, Fevered Sleep and Yorkshire Dance’s Company of People present How to Change the World by Doing Nothing, a durational performance installation bringing together an intergenerational community of dancers from Leeds.

The festival closes with Carl Harrison’s Apocalypse Wow! a cabaret game show for the end of the world, hosted by punk drag alien Niche Lorraine and starring the audience as the contestants.

In addition to performance, the festival also features dance workshops held by renowned older dance artists like Susan Kempster, who will be teaching her signature partnering method; Funmi Adewole Elliott, who will explore storytelling through African urban dances, and Christinne Thynne, who discovered dance later in life.

Right, we’re off to dig out our dancing shoes…