Dear friends,
We will be launching a series of events throughout 2026 to celebrate SDS’s 20th Anniversary!! But first we want to shout out to some of the amazing people and events that happened this year.
Looking back on 2025, it has been a year of endings and new beginnings. We wrapped up two of our flagship projects which brought together hundreds of dancers, researchers and community members marking our on-going commitment to experimentation and pushing the boundaries of dance. Our five-year partnership with dance and science project NEUROLIVE culminated in a 3-day symposium in May; and our annual community performance project LANGUAGE POWER FEAR EMOTION also completed its first cycle with a sold-out dawn performance of EMOTION in July at 4am!
Other highlights which we will be continuing into 2026 include the much-loved Unscary Saturdays. This Autumn we had Dancing through the Caribbean with Sheba, Bharatanatyam basics with Kavya and Breaking with Bgirl SunSun. Annie’s workshop earlier this month gathered a beautiful group of artists and their practices to deep dive into moving without ‘over thinking or over doing’.
We also loved piloting our first Re-making/breaking Traditions Collab and the Underscore in new partnerships with New Earth Theatre and Pembroke House respectively – the turnout for both proved there is appetite and demand for these exclusive BPOC/ Global Majority spaces to exist and continue.
We welcomed our new Community Board and Comms team (maternity cover). We completed the first term of NEXT Choreography facilitated by an incredible range of artists and approaches including Angela Andrew, Akeim Toussaint Buck, Sasha Shadid, Nathaniel Parchment, Emilyn Claid, Jules Cunningham, Annie Hanauer, Wet Mess, June Yuen Ting and of course the amazing Freestylers who have also continued their weekly sessions of care, catwalks and more. We had our first walk with Dyvia from Fruity Walks and discovered fruits growing in the trees surrounding the studios. A glorious year of dancing was brought to a colourful close with Gay Gordon’s busy yet cosy Queer Cèilidh.
Looking forward to 2026 we have some exciting events lined up:
In January get ready for the Degrowth Cabaret Lab with Chaga Collective where dance meets degrowth economics, this is followed closely by the return of our Unscary Saturdays on with Adesola Akinleye who is back by popular demand with their Reclaiming ballet class.
Also in January – make sure you look out for new additions to classes for adults and children led by independent practitioners including Ayeḇainemi Abiẹyuwa Ése’s body based: a somatic movement and rest space for BPOC movers.
Then the first of our 20th Anniversary events kicks off with the Artist Archive Film Night on January 31st revisiting dance film from the last 30 years. 16 films ranging from polished finished works to lo-fi and unfunded experiments will be screened across our whole building, challenging the hierarchy of spaces and what gets to be seen and archived.
February sees the return of Re-making/ Breaking Traditions part II on the same day as our Lunar New Year celebrations which welcome in the year of the Fire Horse with horsey themed dance and crafts.
Siobhan Davies Studios’ offer of free/low cost spaces will also continue with Town Square Studio, Rest, Chats and Co-working plus Space for Action offering free space for fundraising and community-building.
You can also check our regular Space Hire offer for rehearsals, events, parties and more.
Once again a big warm thank you to all who joined us this year. We look forward to welcoming you back after the winter break!
Keep reading to find out more about what’s happening in 2026……