Dance Umbrella Festival.

6 Oct-7 Nov 2009. Once again Dance Umbrella brings a festival of contemporary international dance to the UK. This year it focuses on new dance in Africa with performances, talks, discussions and workshops. The names to look out for among this new, urban-oriented generation of African dancers are Michel Kouakou, (Ivory Coast), Papy Ebotani (Democratic Republic of Congo), Kaolack (Senegal) and Opiyo Okach (Kenya). On 19-20 Oct Kettly Noel from Mali together with Nelisiwe Xaba from |South Africa present a duet, Correspondances, a witty feminist comment on the male-dominated dance scene on the continent.

Also in the month-long programme there are performances by The Cloud Gate dance theatre of Taiwan (6-10 Oct) and Israeli Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak dance company (18-19 Oct). The Shobana Jeyasingh dance company presents the world premiere Bruise Blood and also Faultline (21-22 Oct) an interpretation of tensions among urban British Asian youth of today.

In the latest Dance Umbrella/Dance UK initiative there is a debate on why there are still so few top-ranking British women choreographers (21 Oct). Dance Umbrella has dedicated this year