Southbank Centre Performance & Dance Spring/Summer 2026 Forward Planner
- Performance & Dance
The 2026 Performance & Dance Spring/Summer season coincides with the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary. The original 1951 Festival of Britain embraced the future and the power of culture to shape it. In this spirit, the Southbank Centre’s anniversary programme considers what it is to be the arts centre of the future, representing the creative pulse of London with a programme as wide-reaching and boundary-pushing as the city around it. The Performance & Dance season is at the heart of the anniversary’s celebratory line-up, platforming international choreographers and radical new works. The programme will spotlight creatives shaping the future of dance, from the next generation of trailblazing choreographers to large-scale and ambitious productions from award-winning artists.
Highlights include:
The centrepiece of the anniversary is You Are Here (3–4 May) – a spectacular two-day takeover celebrating British youth culture and the impact of its music, fashion and rebellious politics over the past 75 years. Created, directed and designed by Danny Boyle, Gareth Pugh, Carson McColl and Paulette Randall, You Are Here will involve thousands of participants, taking over the Southbank Centre site across the May Bank Holiday weekend. This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Festival of Britain, and the birth of the Southbank Centre itself. More information about You Are Here, including how to get tickets, will be released in early 2026.
The Southbank Centre’s Spring / Summer 2026 programme showcases UK and London premieres from leading international choreographers, including the world-renowned French artist and director Philippe Quesne, who brings his visionary masterpiece Farm Fatale to London for the first time. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Farm Fatale delivers urgent ecological commentary in a light-hearted, absurdist style (15–16 May).
The world’s leading breaking crew and winners of Battle of the Year Crew Championships 2025, The Ruggeds and the Ghetto Funk Collective perform the UK premiere of GROOVE. Audiences are taken on a journey back in time to the era of James Brown, Nina Simone and Herbie Hancock. Expect a jam-packed evening of soul, funk and hip hop (4–6 June).
The multi award-winning choreographer Stephanie Lake’s UK debut COLOSSUS sees 60 dancers performing as one for a spectacular, visual piece of hypnotic movement and complex patterns. A co-production with London Contemporary Dance School at The Place and the Southbank Centre (25–27 June).
Hofesh Shechter’s exhilarating new, full-length work for his company Shechter II, IN THE BRAIN, is a raw, electrifying dive into movement, rhythm, and collective energy. Audiences are transported to the depths of consciousness, to a dreamlike, club-like, timeless state where movement takes over and euphoria unfolds (22–25 July).
Find out more about the Performance & Dance Spring/Summer 2026 programme