Dance

Big Dance is a week-long celebration of the joy of dance organised by the Mayor of London in partnership with Arts Council England. Across the UK, Big Dance will provide a showcase of physically exciting and emotionally uplifting movement that people of all ages and backgrounds can watch and take part in. From lambada to lindy hop, ceroc to capoeira, bollywood to ballet, this is a fantastic chance to discover that dance in London is diverse, dynamic and world-class. Feature continues

From Saturday July 15, there are dozens of fun and unusual events taking place in streets, parks, schools, museums, theatres and cultural centres across the capital and the UK. There’s an open invitation for everyone to join in, and you don’t need to have special kit or be super-fit. In fact, one of the aims of Big Dance is to show that dance is a fun way to get active and stay fit – even when the week is over.

Big Dance builds to a spectacular climax over the weekend of 22-23 July, when Trafalgar Square will play host to two days of upbeat, eye-catching events and a new world-record attempt – The Big Dance – as part of a special 80-minute dance extravaganza, ‘Dancing in the Street’ by BBC One followed by a day of A-Z of worldwide workshops to round the week off.

London is a major international centre for dance, with many world-renowned companies based here and a network of venues presenting dance performances to a wide range of audiences. Big Dance draws on that heritage and projects dance into the future as an artform, as a physical activity and as a wonderful way to bring people together. So don’t miss your chance to join The Big Dance Class on Saturday lunchtime, when London joins 39 cities across England to present the same dance routine for two minutes in unison.

What are you waiting for? Get up on your feet and dance!

Visit www.london.gov.uk/bigdance for full programme, or www.artscouncil.org.uk/bigdance for events outside London.