Dance at the 2016 Edinburgh festival

The Edinburgh International Festival has announced its 2016 programme, with Natalia Osipova, Scottish Ballet and Akram Khan Company. This year’s festival runs from August 5 to 29, with events in opera, theatre and music as well as dance.

In the dance programme, Natalia Osipova appears with Sergei Polunin, Jason Kittelberger and Vu Anh Pham in works by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Arthur Pita.

The festival has co-produced a revival ofmonumental, by contemporary dance group The Holy Body Tattoo and post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who will also play a concert as part of their visit to Edinburgh.

Scottish Ballet dance a double bill of Crystal Pite’s Emergence and Angelin Preljocaj’sMC14/22 (Ceci est mon corps).

There are two family-friendly dance productions at this year’s festival. Akram Khan Company’s Chotto Desh was developed from Khan’s grown-up production DESH. Its hero, based on Khan himself, is a rebellious child dealing with his ambitions and his family, framed with dream-like animations of magical forests and animals.

Raw, by Belgian theatre company Kabinet K, is a dance theatre work featuring a gang of children aged eight to 12 in a landscape of rubble. It’s aimed at people aged 12 and over.

The festival’s theatre programme includes The Toad Knew, by acrobat, magician and clown James Thierrée. It celebrates the family, with a cast of dancers, contortionists, high-wire artists and Thierrée himself.

For more information about the full programme, visit www.eif.co.uk.

Picture: Natalia Osipova. Photograph: Nikolai Gulakov

Simon Oliver

Simon Oliver has been production editor of Dancing Times since 2010 and is highly experienced in design across print and online magazine production. Throughout his career, Simon has worked on a diverse range of subjects including music, family history, book collecting and poker.