Book now
A dancer in a brown suit jacket crouching low on a blue-lit stage beside white mannequins, in Dalí’s Guest

Dance theatre

Alongside our classes, Hype Dance Company creates original, professional dance theatre. Our work has toured nationally, and we bring new pieces to audiences in Sheffield and beyond, from full-length productions to short works and curtain raisers.

As a not-for-profit, making new work is at the heart of what we do. Our projects give professional dancers, choreographers and our own students the chance to create and perform, and bring dance to people who might not otherwise see it.

Our work

2022

Beautifully Savaged 2

Building on our earlier research and development, Beautifully Savaged 2 grew into a piece of live dance theatre and a dance film. Young people helped shape the story from the start, dance teachers took part in CPD on choreographic approaches, and groups of young people then created their own curtain raisers inspired by the show. The film and its accompanying resource live on as a legacy for artists and anyone working with young people.

A dancer lying on the studio floor in a pool of bright light during filming of Beautifully Savaged 2
A camera monitor on set showing a dancer in blue velvet and taped hands looking at a phone, in front of arched mirrors
A dancer posing against a black backdrop under studio lights while a crew member films

That’s fantastic as a film. I remember it as powerful and uncomfortable on stage, but it’s even more so like this: extra focused, extra dark, and closer to the images and the feelings. Amazing work.

Audience member

Funded by Arts Council England and the J G Graves Charitable Trust

2022

Handle Me With Care

What can dance teach us about care? In this research and development project with Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University, two dancers and a movement artist re-enacted the everyday ritual of dressing older people in care, deconstructing each movement to explore the relationship between a person with reduced mobility and their carer. Over two weeks, the team turned research data into a movement and performance series, combining dance with textile creations, and shared it with a live audience. The process was filmed and documented in a booklet for participants, researchers and people working in health and social care, and its findings now inform CPD for dance artists.

Two dancers stretching a large white sheet between them in front of a seated audience, in Handle Me With Care
Black-and-white close-up of hands resting on a dancer’s leg, beside a soft textile patch on their clothing
Two dancers pulling on a length of fabric between them in a studio performance, with the audience seated around them

Visually pleasing and interesting, whilst also addressing a perhaps overlooked topic. I wanted to see more!

Audience member, live sharing

Such a good piece: beautiful choreography performed by engaging, skilled dancers.

Liz Hall

Funded by Arts Council England

2019

Beautifully Savaged

Our research and development project supported two young choreographers to create a new piece of dance, with a solo and a community cast, exploring how mental health issues affect people, especially young women. The work was shown at Victoria Works in Sheffield, gathering feedback from the dance industry, and outreach workshops in local schools and groups raised awareness of the project and the issues behind it. It laid the foundations for Beautifully Savaged 2.

A dancer in a hoodie throwing a punch beside a hanging cluster of labels with words like pretty and disgusting
A dancer in a hood and taped hands crouching in front of a mirror, fists raised to her red lips
A dancer lying on the floor behind a strand of barbed wire, reaching out with a taped hand
A dancer in large hoop earrings applying red lipstick in a small hand mirror
A dancer in black with taped hands bent forward and screaming under a single stage light
A dancer with taped hands pulling a length of bandage tight across her mouth

Such a powerful piece of work. The choreography was so strong, with a very clear narrative, and it was beautifully performed with such feeling and understanding. On the way home, it was a great catalyst for a wider conversation with my 11- and 13-year-old about the pressures facing teenagers, especially around social media.

Elena Pamphilon, parent

Very powerful and moving performances, especially the last act. Sarah is a fabulous actress as well as a brilliant dancer.

Audience member

Funded by Arts Council England

2018

Dalí’s Guest

A surrealist cabaret of immersive dance theatre exploring the effects of cancer on the body. Our founder Anna Olejnicki collaborated with dancer Joshua Hubbard, visual artist Sarah-Jane Palmer, a young apprentice dancer and students from Hype Dance Academy to create the piece, which was performed at Barnsley Civic Theatre. Alongside the performance, we ran outreach workshops at Barnsley Civic, Barnsley Hospice and Hype Dance, and the Civic’s exhibition space displayed the work of Rachel Guest.

Performers in bright costumes holding colourful paper parasols on stage, in Dalí’s Guest
A dancer lying face down on a stage lit deep blue, with white mannequin heads behind
A performer with bright circles painted on her cheek holding a placard, in Dalí’s Guest

Dalí’s Guest has been one of the most interesting creative things I’ve ever done in my life, and I loved every minute of it. It felt like playing.

Andrew Murray, community cast member

A heartfelt well done to everyone in Dalí’s Guest for portraying the definitely surreal journey through cancer, and an impeccable performance. And a really big thank you for including and caring for my 12-year-old throughout.

Ruth Gunay, parent of a community cast member

Funded by Arts Council England

2016

Mode:Default

Dance meets dementia research. Anna Olejnicki worked with dance animateur Elizabeth Foster from the University of Derby and Dr Daniel Blackburn, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) at the University of Sheffield, to turn research findings on dementia into a piece of dance theatre and a community dance piece, alongside CPD for dance artists. Documented on film, the project brought dance and academic research together and reached audiences who wouldn’t usually see dance. It was performed in the Spiegeltent at Sheffield’s Festival of the Mind.

Four dancers in black tops and animal-print leggings lunging in a line on stage at Festival of the Mind
Dancers in black tops and animal-print leggings in a close group on the floor, leaning into each other

Your performance of Mode:Default moved me to tears. The choreography was extremely powerful, and the dancers expressed fluidity, connection and disconnection. Not only was it danced effectively, it was acted well. I will remember this performance for some time.

Jan Novitzky, audience member

Funded by Arts Council England and Sheffield’s Festival of the Mind

2016

Stick & Move

Boxing meets street dance. Building on our dance and boxing projects with Sheffield’s Ingle Gym, Stick & Move brought young people aged 7–19 from Leeds together with Hype hip hop artist Sarah Hobson and Ingle Gym amateur boxer Isah Hassan. The young people learned boxing moves, came up with the concepts for the piece, and devised their own physical theatre about the tough world of boxing, performed at Trinity Leeds as part of The Breeze Arts Festival.

A dancer in boxing gloves dropping into a low, twisting move in a boxing ring
A boxer in blue training on pads with a coach in a boxing gym

I can honestly say this is one of the most exciting community projects I have ever been involved with.

Sarah Hobson, Hype hip hop artist

Funded by Arts Council England and The Breeze Arts Festival

2015–16

Savage Beauty

Professional dancers and boxers meet in the ring. Created with Sheffield’s legendary Ingle Gym, home of world champions including Prince Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson and Kell Brook, Savage Beauty fuses boxers’ footwork with contemporary hip hop dance theatre. Performed in a real boxing ring, with a moving voiceover from the late trainer Brendan Ingle, the 25-minute outdoor show was free to watch and toured arts festivals across the country in 2015 and 2016, from Sheffield to Cumbria and Hebden Bridge.

The piece grew out of educational projects with the Ingle Gym, exploring the link between dance and sport, which we’d run since 2013.

Black-and-white portrait of a dancer in boxing gloves with her guard raised, in Savage Beauty
A dancer leaping above the ropes of an outdoor boxing ring under a dramatic sky
Dancers sparring in an outdoor boxing ring in front of a festival crowd, with wooded hills behind

Fantastic performance! It’s great to see the sport of boxing transformed into the art of dance.

Brendan Ingle MBE

Produced in collaboration with the Ingle Gym and Spin Arts. Funded by Arts Council England.

2008

Routes / Altered Equal

Two hip hop works for the stage. Routes was a piece of hip hop theatre made for traditional theatre spaces, with a live scratch DJ on stage, exploring the social issues around witnessing crime. After a pilot educational tour in Yorkshire, it toured the country. Altered Equal was a solo hip hop performance about how things that appear the same can be very different, and how things that seem different can share surprising similarities.

Funded by Arts Council England

Performing at Hype

Our studio theatre (Studio 2) seats up to 48, with a stage area and lighting rig, and hosts our own Christmas shows and cabaret evenings. Want to perform, or bring your work to Sheffield? Get in touch.

Work with us

Venues and festivals interested in booking our work, artists who’d like to collaborate, and funders and partners: we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch