Contemporary dance has come a hell of a long way in the 30 years that Dance Umbrella has been running and that's reflected in this year's programme with the once pioneering and avant garde, now established, respectable big hitters opening the season: Merce Cunningham dance company presents new work alongside classic at the Barbican and Richard Alston celebrates his 60th birthday at Sadlers Wells. As usual, "brief encounters" with emerging choreographers precede the big......

Recapture the Carnival calypso vibe at Sadlers Wells monthly dance club night. This time it's Soca! Learn the high energy moves from Trinidad and Tobago in classes for beginners and improvers then let your hair down, get your sequined bikini and feathered headdress out and strut your stuff into the night for just £8. For more information and to book go to the Sadlers Wells website.......

There's plenty to entertain those of us in search of cultural enlightenment this week. London's arts scene is offering a really varied pick'n'mix bag of sticky sweet treats... Enjoy! Happy Birthday West Side Story! This groundbreaking dance musical opens tonight at Sadlers' Wells, 50 finger-clicking years since it first appeared. Without Jerome Robbins' legendary choreography, Londonist can't help think everything from MJ's Thriller to Britney's school uniform would've been rather different. Tomorrow night, you......

When you get back from your audition for Showtime Challenge 3 on Saturday, what better way to extend the musical showbizzery than joining Sadlers Wells Dance Club's West End night? Even if you chicken out of trying out for the stage yourself this is a fabulous way to indulge your West End whimsy and learn routines from Chicago, West Side Story and the ultimate dancers' musical, A Chorus Line. Camp it up, honeys! Heels,......

It's one of those weeks where you feel London's arts scene could end up totally overwhelming you if you're not careful. Strap yourselves in, there's masses going on... We'll start with outdoor opera. When was the last time we told you about watching world-class opera for free? We can't remember either. So, head to Trafalgar Square or Canary Wharf on Thursday and enjoy Verdi's Don Carlo free from 6pm on the big screens. There's......

Yikes, summer's here, and London's gone festival mad. We can hardly keep up… We're sorry we've only just got round to telling you about this year's Lift Festival, which started last week in Stratford, then moves to the Southbank Centre next Thursday, and on to Shoreditch from 16-24 August. Previously the London International Festival of Theatre, Lift has been bringing innovative world theatre to London for 25 years, usually in the last place you......

Frantic crayola coloured "Scribbling" as cockroaches scuttle away under a huge lamp, Saint-Saëns’ wonderful score for "Carnival of the Animals" given a new lease of life by Siobhan Davies, done out in white tuxedoes (spot the beasts!) followed by the entire company dressed as the Queen prior to stripping off their royal garb and throwing themselves off a cliff in "Anatomica #3". All this with the 'mood and dynamics' sign language interpreted at the......

Just as London spring begins to break beautifully over the city, the Flamenco Festival is charging into Sadlers Wells to make us all long for the heat and sultriness of a Spanish summer. The fiesta spans the spectrum of the dance form from the Farruquito family presenting traditional gypsy flamenco to one woman and one man pushing flamenco into the 21st Century. There's a showcase homage to the great women of Flamenco, tributes to......

Doesn't sunshine make everything seem better? Alright, it's been brass monkeys but nothing lifts the winter blues like bright skies, crisp air and early daffodils. It's half term for most kids this week so your commute might even be more pleasant. In which case, perhaps you'll be more inclined to get out after work and try something different that's light on your wallet and heavy on aceness. After all, we really can't afford good......

Strictly Come Dancing may be but a glitzy, Christmas twinkle in the memory banks but for all of you that fell in love once more with the heat and hustle of the latin section, Samba Dance Club night at Sadlers Wells is something you need to know about. Starting at 7.15pm with a beginners class (ie you don't need to know ANYTHING) then progressing to intermediate at 8.15pm (for those of you with a......

Be there first: After all the brouhaha over the From Russia paintings, this is surely the show to see in its opening week. Stunning, inspirational works by the likes of Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Tatlin and Malevich come to the Royal Academy from Saturday. This is jaw-dropping art you'd normally only get to see with a deep, heavy, carbon-footprint inducing flight to Russia, we're lucky enough to have it on our doorsteps until......

Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......

Sadlers Wells Sampled is a brilliant format that brings you a 'tapas' of top notch professional dance for just £10 (or a fiver if you're prepared to 'prom' it.) It's the perfect introduction to dance and an great opportunity to sample new styles in one night. We tried to tempt you with brand new dance at The Place last week. Well, this week we're being a bit more forthright, tooting a big red horn......

If the clocks going back filled you with winter blues this week then we prescribe you must get yourself to Sadlers Wells sharpish. For a reasonable amount of quids you can get yourself a seasonal dose of magic and wonderment which will fix you right up. James Thiérrée's "Au Revoir Parapluie" is just what you need. Alright, so it's more expensive than a happy pill prescription from the GP or a map or your......

Dance can often seem an intimidating or impenetrable art form for the non-pointy toed punter so here are our top 4 recommendations for shows to see in the rest of 2007. All will blow your mind in different ways. Go pop your dance cherry on the coolest shows around. Zero Degrees 16-20 October, Sadlers Wells Another chance to catch this unique artistic collaboration between dancers and choreographers Akram Khan and Sidi Labi Cherkaoui, composer......

"Touch Wood" can't help but make us think of that charming metaphor "touching cloth". Childish, we know, but considering it's meant to be a direct and reference to a superstitious gesture intended to ensure whatever you've just been talking about doesn't go tits up, perhaps the subtext is also appropriate for those with anxious dispositions. Touch Wood is a season of brand new dance, most of which hasn't been created at the time of......

Now it’s properly August there’s not much coming up on the tellybox. However, if you really can’t be arsed to get out there and catch some cheap London, Camden Fringe or Shoreditch Festival then you could keep your London head in check by paying attention to the following: On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 6 August Super Vets (BBC1, 19:30-20:00) Terrible title but a nice opportunity to catch a behind the scenes look at London......

Tap rocks. It’s official. First we heard about Tilly and the Wall and their tap dancing support to CSS at the Astoria recently and now we get bowled over by a smoking hot London debut from Savion Glover at Sadlers Wells. "Live For London" isn’t a dance show as such, it’s a concert. Glover is a master tap dancer and entertainer but most importantly he’s an incredible musician whose instrument is his entire body......

One way you could entertain some children this weekend, yours or someone else’s – just get permission first, is to let them run riot in twelve miles of elastic. Stretch II is a show that uses a twelve mile long elastic, webby sculpture, created by Sophia Clist, as its starting point and weaves dance, music, film and audience participation in and around it. Frankly, it sounds bonkers and fun, but it’s also art; It......

Bank holidays are great, aren’t they? London is emptying as we write with the motored up masses departing for gridlock on motorways around the country and we're all looking forward to getting to the pub as soon as feasibly possible. Possibly sooner. With the warmest April on record just behind us and the glorious sunny weather this week, records numbers are predicted to pile out of the capital and shack up at the seaside,......

Yes, yet another Londonist preview of a fantastically quirky arts event; we love it. Half opera, half dance performance, part underwater extravaganza and mostly Greek tragedy, the innovative staging of England’s oldest opera by one of the stars of German dance theatre should be stunning and, quite possibly, splishy. The performance opens with a humungous, transparent water tank on stage in which, it is promised, an exquisite underwater dance will take place. "Dido and......

Sadlers Wells' annual Flamenco Festival brings a whirligig of colour, passion, drama, guitars, stamping and really big flouncy dresses to London between 23 Feb and 3 Mar in a welcome bid to remind us of sultry hot days and sunny Spanish sexiness. Highlights of this year’s festival include the remarkable Granada-born dancer and choreographer Eva Yerbabuena; flamenco’s star vocalist and the singing voice of Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodovar’s film Volver, Estrella Morente; some......

The sun is shining, the music is high... why walk when you can dance? There are loads and loads of events taking place between today and the last night of the Big Dance Festival on Sunday, so many that we can't list them all here. Most events are free and range from taster classes in ceroc, lindy hop and tango to dance displays at places like the Trocadero to big shows at Sadlers Wells......