Performing Artist 2510

Miss High Leg Kick – PALAIS DE DANSE

This year sees the return of Oliver-winning live artist Francesca Baglione (aka, Miss High Leg Kick) with PALAIS DE DANSE, a multi-sensory flashback (with a modern ‘Twist’) to a night out in late 1950s British dance halls. The offbeat, interactive show with multi-generational appeal celebrates the collective excitement of teenage nights then and now. Supported by Certain Blacks.

PALAIS DE DANSE
Francesca Baglione (Miss High Leg Kick) is an established Olivier Award-winning live artist whose work uses collaboration and unusual approaches to audience engagement to create ambitious, accessible performances.
Large-scale outdoor works (e.g. Fashion Bus and Audition Project) and
interactive pieces (C’est Barbican / Duckie!, Bird Rave and Eau de Memoire) are marked by humour, a love of spectacle, dance and the celebration of the everyday.
She is an Associate Artist of Duckie.

Facebook: @misshighlegkick
Instagram: @misshighlegkick

Produced by Turtle Key Arts, TELL ME is Sadiq Ali Company’s brand new circus theatre show. Blending breathtaking Chinese pole, acrobatics, and physical storytelling, the piece explores a narrative around HIV and overcoming stigma. Supported by Certain Blacks, Inspirate, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Stockton International Riverside Festival, and Birmingham Weekender.

Tell Me
Sadiq Ali (he/him) is a mixed heritage, queer, circus artist and performance maker who graduated from London’s National Centre for Circus Arts, specialising in Chinese Pole.
He has created and worked with contemporary circus companies like Ockhams Razor and Upswing Circus and has been devising his own full length works, the first of which has premiered recently to critical acclaim. Sadiq also regularly performs on the international Cabaret, Variety and Burlesque circuits where he combines a joyous love for comedy, body expression and representation.
Instagram: @sadiqsadiq

This year’s festival features HOLY DIRT, a new collaboration between physical theatre legend and director David Glass and internationally renowned Vidya Thirunarayan from Vidya Productions. Set to live percussion, the show bridges Indian performance styles, particularly Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, with modern physical theatre forms like bouffon and melodrama. Clay, stones, water and sand erupt across the space in a visually startling performance where the rawness of earth converges with myth and ritual. Supported by Certain Blacks and Arts Council England.

HOLY DIRT
Internationally renowned as a Bharatanatyam dancer, Vidya Thirunarayan is also a prominent ceramicist, and in 2015 she began producing and promoting work that blends her dual expertise as a dancer and potter in a unique performance language.
David Glass is a pioneering theatre artist, director, and teacher whose work has transformed the landscape of international performance. Renowned for his boundary-pushing creativity, David has carved a global reputation as a leading figure in physical and devised theatre.
As the founder of the David Glass Ensemble, he has masterfully blended innovative storytelling with striking visual and physical language, delivering timeless works that challenge, provoke, and move.
Facebook: @Dancingpot

Performing exclusively on Sunday 27th July and taking the Royal Docks in a joyful street revolution, outdoor artists Ramshacklicious and inclusive theatre company Hijinx challenge societal norms in TRUTH. Featuring a mixed cast of disabled and non-disabled performers, this riotous performance blends clowning, physical theatre, and original music. Interactive and partly improvised, this theatrical revolution leaves audiences united and with a fresh sense of hope. Supported by Arts Council England.
TRUTH
Ramshacklicious and Hijinx have been collaborating over the past two
years to experiment with inclusive performance language using clown and
physical theatre, and to create work co-devised by all of the cast.
Ramshacklicious have created high-quality, subversive, contemporary theatrical experiences for the outdoors and repurposed spaces since 2006.
They aim to create work that is accessible yet subversive, taking unexpected audiences on anarchic journeys into the unexpected.
HIJINX are one of Europe’s leading inclusive theatre companies, creating outstanding performances with learning disabled and/or autistic performers for stage, screen & out-doors. They create exhilarating, subversive theatre from large to small scale for both indoor and outdoors. Artists with learning disabilities and/or autism are involved every step of the way in the making and performing of their stories.

Facebook: @HijinxTheatre , @Ramshacklicious

Outdoor arts veterans Artizani and sustainability-focused Tenderfoot Theatre come together in Hydropunk, an interactive water installation created with the public. A chaotic yet playful water machine cranks into motion in a striking environmental metaphor where everyone must work together to recycle water and keep the fun flowing. Supported by Without Walls, Stockton International Riverside Festival, Birmingham Weekender, and Brighton Festival.

Hydropunk

Artizani is a dedicated, internationally recognised outdoor arts company with 35 years’ experience. They are experts in the field, having made over 30 shows, and their director holds the only UK PhD in Contemporary Outdoor Arts. They make shows that are flexible, respond to the space they are in, and engage with the audiences they find there.

Tenderfoot Theatre is an eco-theatre company and sustainable arts organisation that seeks to make work at the intersection of sustainability and creativity. As a collaborative group of researchers, theatre-makers, designers, and writers, they create work that explores climate change and sustainability in a way that is optimistic, full of energy, and sustainably made at every stage of the process.

Facebook: @Artizani , @TenderfootTheatre
Instagram: @artizaniuk , @tenderfoot.theatre

HUG is a vibrant circus theatre performance that rediscovers the simple act of a hug. This work features an impressive sway pole that takes the artist high above the Royal Docks. Levantes Dance Theatre fuses aerial dance, physical theatre and bold visuals to explore our relationships with people, objects, and our surroundings. Supported by Without Walls, Certain Blacks, Stockton International Riverside Festival, Birmingham Weekender, and Brighton Festival.

Artist Bio HUG
Levantes Dance Theatre is a female-led dance theatre company that makes bold, colourful participatory dance/circus with communities of womxn* for indoor and outdoor spaces. Expect engaging characters, physicality and theatrical high jinx in an explosion of colour.
They use big costumes to create striking visuals, making a meaningful opportunity for communities to perform in high-quality work.
They have been making and performing work for outdoor spaces internationally since 2012, from car parks to casinos, from shopping centres to garden parties. Their work includes HIGH TEA (WITH A TWIST), THE BAND, KATHY’S PARLOUR, CANAPE ART.

* Womxn is inclusive of trans and non-binary

Facebook: @LevantesDanceTheatre
Instagram: @levantes_dance_theatre