Celebrate the energy, creativity and diversity of East London with this joyful showcase.

Get into Dance shines a spotlight on the power of dance to bring people together, improve wellbeing and celebrate identity.

Get into Dance shines a spotlight on the power of dance to bring people together, improve wellbeing and celebrate identity.

Regular dance classes in community centres across Islington and East London provide free opportunities for our local communities to move, express, and connect. This festival is where it all comes together. Featuring an inspiring line up of performances and workshops, this is a celebration of the people and communities we work with year-round.

Created in collaboration with professional artists and local participants, the lineup includes Host MC Azara, DJ Kathy and performances from a wide range of community groups and invited guests featuring different dance styles:

• Ageless Teenagers – Reggae Line Dancing
• Beaumount Crew
• Brickworks – Hanley Crouch Community Centre
• Dance Floor Presents: Bollywood
• Dance Floor Presents: Indian Classical & Contemporary Dance with Showmi Das & Shobana Jeyasingh Dance
• English National Ballet’s Dance for Parkinson’s programme
• Hackney Drumming
• Hibiscus Steppaz
• Leap of Faith – East London Dance
• Pembury Community Centre
• Reggae Line Dancing
• St Hildas Community Centre
• St Lukes Community Centre
• The Place Over 60s

St Hilda’s East Community Centre

Flamenco is a passionate dance from Andalucia, Spain. The sessions are designed for adult learners at the St. Hilda’s East Community Centre in a friendly environment, taught by Lucia Caruso. Learners will have the chance to experience Spanish culture and to express themselves through Flamenco dance.

Farruca, the name of this dance refers to inhabitants from Galicia and Asturias who have left their homeland. It carries a brave, courageous and a dramatic style, opposed to Tangos from the villages along the Atlantic seaboard near Cadiz which is more festive, sparkling and sensual style.

Choregraphed by Lucia Caruso

hanleycrouch.org.uk

Brickworks Community Centre

Brickworks have been working on jazz and ballet techniques focusing on rhythm, strength and coordination. They’ve also been working creatively, learning choreography and devising their own work on the theme of airports and moving through the airport. For the performance you will see a culmination of all these things!

Choregraphed by Nicholas Norman supported by Katie Stafford-Roberts

sthildas.org.uk

Beaumont Dance Crew

The Beaumont Dance Crew from Leyton will take the stage at Sadler’s Wells Get into Dance Festival with a joyful celebration of movement, music, and lived experience.

Our piece challenges stereotypes, showing that hip hop has no age limit- only feeling, groove, and soul.

It’s about joy, community, and the power of dance to keep us connected to ourselves and each other.

Choregraphed by Charlie Blair supported by Aimee Gillespie

lqgroup.org.uk

Pembury Community Centre

The Pembury Community Dance Group return to the Get Into Dance Festival this year with a joyful and powerful Jamaican dance work created in collaboration with women from the Pembury community and Julene Robinson. These extraordinary women bring energy, warmth and strength to the stage, dancing with confidence and an unmistakable sense of joy.

This year’s performance centres the lived stories of the Pembury women celebrating their resilience and remarkable life journeys through movement, music and shared cultural memory. ‘Come mek wi all Daance together.’

Choregraphed by Julene Robinson

peabody.org.uk

Hibiscus Steppaz

Echo of the East is a cultural dance showcase highlighting the powerful Afro-Haitian roots present in Eastern Cuba and their connection to the wider Afro-Caribbean diaspora.

Through dance and cultural storytelling, the audience will experience traditions shaped by Haitian migration to Cuba, including influences seen in Tumba Francesa, Gagá and Haitian Méringue, all of which continue to live within the cultural identity of Eastern Cuban communities today.

These traditions reflect histories of migration, resilience, spirituality and community life, blending African, Caribbean and European influences into unique cultural expressions that have been preserved across generations.

Presented by the Hibiscus Community Centre, this showcase celebrates cultural preservation, community voice and the living legacy of Afro-Caribbean heritage through performance and artistic expression.

Choregraphed by Luanda Pau Baquero supported by Miguel Gonzalez

hibiscuscommunitycentre.co.uk

Bollywood with Showmi Das

Our Indian Classical and Contemporary Group has been developing a powerful new piece, performed as a Curtain Raiser for We Caliban by Shobhana Jeyasingh Company. Through shared movement, dancers explore connection, strength and grounded presence. The work reimagines Indian Classical dance through a contemporary lens, pushing movement boundaries to create a bold, expressive performance inspired by We Caliban.

Meanwhile, our Bollywood Group brings high energy Bhangra to the stage, set to a popular Bollywood track guaranteed to get audiences moving. This vibrant piece focuses on building stamina and creating an upbeat, physically challenging environment while delivering a joyful, feel-good performance full of rhythm and energy.

St Luke’s Community Centre x Akram Kahn Company

The St Luke’s dancers have explored Akram Kahn’s Thikra and its central themes: ritual, memory, ancestral wisdom, and strength. Their creative responses is what they will be sharing at Get into Dance festival.

Woven Tapestries honours the ancestral strength, creativity, and rituals of women across generations and cultures. The project extends the artistic reach of the Thikra while creating a platform for underrepresented voices and intergenerational stories, connecting women across time, place, and tradition. It honours women as creators, nurturers, and keepers of knowledge.

Choregraphed by Shivaangee Agrawal on behalf of Akram Khan Company

slpt.org.uk