Recently I had the total pleasure of attending part of the Elixir Festival run by Sadler’s Wells to promote older people’s dance.
The Festival, which spanned two weeks, included a series of performances by older professional dancers, including commissioned new work, community dance companies and a series of talks and workshops. It attracted mainstream attention with a full house for the main stage and national newspaper reviews.
There was so much that I enjoyed but I will just select the extraordinary performance by Louise Lecavalier at 65 setting a Techno Beat pace that it was hard to imagine anyone of any age surpassing in a club where her friend David Bowie might be sitting at the bar. Then there was the mash up Hip Hop by ZooNation Youth Company with Sadlers Wells’ Company of Elders which was simply a recipe for happiness. I would also like to mention a powerful piece in a public area of Sadlers Wells by Christopher Matthews about the criminalisation of Gay men in the 1960s. I was frustrated to miss Mehek Live which sounded wonderful and was a piece by Aakash Odedra involving older members of the South Asian community in Leicester including from two care homes.
The Baring Foundation had the privilege of supporting the first edition of Elixir Festival in 2016. It built on the longstanding work of the Company of Elders which has been in existence since 1989. Since then, there have been mini-festivals in 2019 and 2022, as well as another full-fledged festival on the main stage in 2017. Their festival has taken a variety of forms including opportunities for community companies of older dancers from a across the UK coming to perform in London.
All this made me come to two conclusions.
Firstly, what an amazing job that Sadler’s Wells has been doing through example in leading a discussion, perhaps a movement, that challenges the idea of professional dance being the preserve of people under 40. This seems to me to be gaining ground not only in the UK with companies such as Moving Memory Dance and Encore East among many others, but internationally through an EU funded ten nation collaboration called Dance On. Although not the topic of this blog, the Company of Elders has continued to evolve, partly through sheer demand. It has needed to create an alumni group in addition to its ongoing weekly meetings. If you want to explore this further there is a very good digital archive of talks and performances here.
Secondly, the value of festivals over the longer term. In creative ageing, we really only have the Gwanwyn in Wales which has stayed the course. Luminate in Scotland has changed priorities, becoming a development agency, and others have been more one-off or episodic such as (B)OLD Festival at the Southbank Centre or Every Third Minute at Leeds Playhouse. These have often been very good and undoubtedly great experiences for audiences and performers alike but they don’t have the sustained effect of a recurring festival with a high profile such as Elixir which allows older people’s dance to take to the mainstream.