Leap Dance Festival set to boost local talent in 2026

Liverpool’s premier dance festival returns, premiering fresh commissions alongside performances from the region’s most promising emerging artists.

Leap Dance Festival seeks to solidify Liverpool’s reputation as a primary choreographic centre for the North.

Through a dedicated program of grants and creative commissions, Leap Dance Festival continues to invest in and elevate the region’s most promising performers. Opening in just two weeks, the annual festival aims to provide 16 days of amazing live performances throughout the region.

A series of special commissions, which will be presented in partnership with Culture Liverpool and made possible by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, will be put on during the festival. The much-anticipated festival will be running from 24 April to 9 May.

As well as live music, dancers will be showcasing new work as they compete for the coveted Liverpool Dance Prize, with five bursaries awarded to help them develop their work.

As part of this year’s festivities, new commissions from LGBTQ+ artists will be presented at Queer Moves, which will be coming to Liverpool’s Unity Theatre on Friday, 1 May.

The new piece, The Queer Dancehall, will be staged by Amber Buttery and Owen Gillott and will include live performance, community participation and a dance film.

Amber Buttery is a LIPA-trained director and actor who has created many works connecting communities and starting conversations. Her directing credits include Small Hours (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse), Missionary (Hope Mill Theatre) and Power (Tmesis).

Owen Gillott is an award-winning Liverpool-based dance artist and lip-sync extraordinaire whose dance credits include Between the Lines, Love Letter series and the Vogue Ball.

Free workshops will also be held ahead of Leap where queer couples will be invited to get involved with dancing. Upcoming artists will also be working at the Unity Theatre on Thursday, 30 April as part of this year’s Liverpool Dance Prize.

To help artists create these new works and compete for a development grant of £1,000, five bursaries of £750 have been awarded to those competing. Previous artists from the 2024 prize have gone on to present work at the Edinburgh Fringe, Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival and at Turn North West.

Recipients of the 2026 bursaries are Joseph Thomas Adamson; Zara Phillips and Natassa Argyropoulou; Hui-Hsin Lu; Aimee Gerrard, and Laura Macy.

Joseph Thomas Adamson trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and is a queer-identifying, early-career dancer, performer, choreographer and movement director. His work, Parallel Pulse, is a contemporary dance duet which explores the complicated and contradictory ways the body and mind respond to significant life events or trauma.

Hailing from Liverpool, Zara Phillips developed her craft through the Lowry CAT scheme, where she gained invaluable experience working alongside Phoenix Dance Theatre and acclaimed choreographers Akram Khan and Jamaal Burkmar. A former member of the National Youth Dance Company, Zara holds a first-class degree from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Greek freelance artist and movement director Natassa Argyropoulou, an alumna of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, is the founder of the multidisciplinary Sixth House Theatre. Her latest creative venture reimagines dance as a collective celebration, artfully weaving traditional Greek folk forms into a contemporary movement vernacular to explore the power of communal experience.

Originally from Taipei and now based in Manchester, Hui-Hsin Lu is a versatile artist, choreographer, and educator. Her practice seamlessly bridges ballet, contemporary, Chinese dance, and commercial styles, defined by a signature blend of elegance and high-energy creativity. Her latest choreographic work draws deep inspiration from the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and aether.

Influenced by the sharp precision of martial arts, Aimee Gerrard’s ensemble work translates the spirit of Taekwondo and Tai Chi into a high-octane stage performance.

Also featured is Laura Macy, a 2021 LIPA alumna whose career bridges the worlds of dance and music. A professional pianist and choreographer, Laura has brought her distinct movement style to music videos for Starfall and Heads of Tails, as well as numerous commercial projects for TV and film.

Organised and presented by Chaos Arts CIC, Leap Dance Festival is the Liverpool City Region’s leading dance event. It showcases the work of local artists, community groups and young people. As a bonus, the festival also coincides with the International Day of Dance which this year takes place on Wednesday, 29 April.

Since its relaunch in 2024 following a five-year pause, Leap has commissioned 35 new dance works, five films, and supported the early careers of many artists.

A total of 1,438 people took an active part in Leap in 2024 and 2025, and last year’s event attracted audiences of almost 73,000 through live and digital engagement.

Leap Dance Festival Director Paul Doyle said:

“We are delighted that the city has responded so well to the return of Leap over the past three years. This year’s festival sees us continue our support for local and regional artists, and our commitment to creating opportunities for emerging artists and graduates to test ideas and begin their careers here in Liverpool. This year we are working with new partners, nationally recognised artists and companies and furthering our reach across the city region. ”