Yorkshire Dance's Ageless festival returns to challenge stereotypes around age and ageing

Launched in 2019, the festival then returned in 2022, is back this year and the intention is for it to run biennially. “It started out as an experiment really,” says Yorkshire Dance’s creative director Hannah Robertshaw. “We wanted to take a moment to really celebrate and shine a light on age and ageing and all the interesting debates around that, such as the politics of the body, and that has remained at the heart of it.”

That first festival was quite ground-breaking at the time and it began a conversation, with Yorkshire Dance at the forefront, that has continued and developed. It has led to other dance companies and arts organisations taking up the theme, working with older performers and highlighting their stories and experiences. “I think the rest of the dance sector has caught up with us now and a lot of them are interested in this kind of work,” says Robertshaw. “I feel that as each festival has progressed, we have become richer in terms of what we can offer. As an organisation we have been on a journey in this area – we have developed a lot of participatory work but we also support a range of artists including many older artists – offering them opportunities to perform their work in the city. There is a lot more community work happening in that space now, especially in Leeds, and this year’s festival captures all that.”

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It opens joyfully with a Big Communal Boogie at Yorkshire Dance’s home to which everyone is invited and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved with a series of dance workshops taking place across the two days alongside performances of high-quality contemporary dance pieces. They include a double bill of new work from Susan Kempster, Mother, an intergenerational duet co-commissioned by Yorkshire Dance and Sadlers Well that looks at how the dynamic of a mature woman and a young man can avoid the narrative of mother and son. Christine Thynne, an emerging artist in her 80s, shares her new work Mechanisms. Robertshaw says: “She defies stereotypes of older women through the sheer physicality of her show which sees her perform within a precarious structure on stage.”

There is a long-form four-hour durational work entitled How to Change the World By Doing Nothing taking place at Leeds Art Gallery featuring an intergenerational community of dancers from around the city. Celebrating Participation is a triple bill showcasing the creativity of older adults in the North with works created by community dance companies Performance Ensemble from Leeds, Third Bite Dance from Sheffield and Liverpool’s Men! Dancing! In 40/40 by Two Destination Language, artist Katherina Radeva explores her 40 years as a woman, a migrant and an artist. In a panel discussion Why Be Seen? acclaimed artists Gillian Dyson Moss, Funmi Adewole Elliott and Susan Kempster talk candidly about their experiences of ageing as a woman in dance and how women’s bodies as performers are read as they age.

There is plenty of food for thought in a far-reaching programme that pushes at boundaries, inviting people to question preconceptions, while also encouraging them to participate and enjoy themselves along the way. “Ageless has always been a bit radical and an example of that is our closing show which is Carl Harrison’s Apocalypse Wow!,” says Robertshaw. “It is a cabaret game show for the end of the world hosted by punk drag alien Niche Lorraine, starring the audience as the contestants. We are not ending the festival with a tea dance, we are doing something that feels political and funky and fun.”

Much of what Yorkshire Dance does is about bringing people together from all walks of life and all ages. “We want to create a community of support around our work on ageing, health and wellbeing,” says Robertshaw. “Dance has a universality – it is enjoyed by everyone and we don’t stop enjoying our bodies and moving to music. That connection with body and movement is innate – we are born with it and we die with it, and that should be celebrated.”

Yorkshire Dance’s Ageless Festival runs for two days on July 12 and 13. Many events are free and most are pay what you feel. For full programme details and to book visit yorkshiredance.com