Certain Blacks presents the free Ensemble Festival 2025 at London’s historic Royal Victoria Docks on 26 and 27 July, 2025.
This year’s Ensemble Festival features LGBTQ+ icon and star of many a wild night at the RVT, Olivier Award winner and Duckie Associate Artist, Miss High Leg Kick. Miss High Leg Kick will transport audiences to the late 1950s in the multi-sensory PALAIS DE DANSE experience. This offbeat, interactive show evokes the ambience of classic dancehall culture, infused with a modern twist that celebrates the collective excitement of teenage nights both then and now.
Joining Miss High Leg Kick, also known as Francesca Baglione, are supporting performers Steve Nice, Lorna Rees, Abi Cunliffe, and two talented teenagers, Reggie Roberts and Luciana Hutt. This lively spectacle offers an absurd take on retro nightlife culture. In portraying the local lothario, Steve Nice brings fabulous camp energy that may stretch the audience’s disbelief.
TELL ME by Sadiq Ali Co. tackles the stigma surrounding HIV through the medium of circus, incorporating the stunning art of Chinese pole acrobatics and physical storytelling. This contemporary circus and movement piece explores a narrative centred on HIV and the journey of overcoming stigma. Tell Me examines the strength of group dynamics and community in fostering connections and breaking down barriers to intimacy, touch, and human interaction.
“This show is where two threads of my life meet: circus and HIV activism. For the first time, I’ve been able to bring these parts of myself into one space — a space that’s physical, honest, joyful, and a little defiant”.
Sadie Ali about “Tell Me”
With step-free access, accessible toilets, and a dedicated access team, Certain Blacks is committed to ensuring everyone feels supported at the Ensemble Festival with access provisions detailed on the Certain Blacks website.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Certain Blacks. Over the past decade, this organisation has been pivotal in nurturing diverse talent and providing a national platform for underrepresented voices. Based in East London, Certain Blacks has become an integral part of the area’s cultural landscape.
“Ensemble represents everything we’re about at Certain Blacks. Our aim is to bring diverse artists from the margins into the mainstream, and with several new commissions which include Vidya Productions and David Glass with Holy Dirt and Miss High Leg Kick with PALAIS DE DANSE along with Certain Blacks supported Without Walls Commissions Sadiq Ali Co’ – TELL ME, Mish Weaver – Waiting Song and Levantes Theatre – HUG, we hope to present a truly engaging, spectacular and entertaining festival to mark 10 years of Certain Blacks”
Clive Lyttle, Artistic Director, Certain Blacks.
The Ensemble Festival 2025 programme includes:
Artizani and Tenderfoot Theatre – Hydropunk
Outdoor arts veterans Artizani and sustainability-focused Tenderfoot Theatre collaborate in Hydropunk, an interactive water installation created with the public. A chaotic yet playful water machine cranks into motion in a striking environmental metaphor, where everyone must work together to recycle water and keep the fun flowing.
Levantes Dance Theatre – HUG
HUG is a vibrant circus theatre performance that rediscovers the simple act of a hug. This work features an impressive sway pole that takes the artist high above the Royal Docks. Levantes Dance Theatre fuses aerial dance, physical theatre and bold visuals to explore our relationships with people, objects, and our surroundings.
Mish Weaver – Waiting Song
In Waiting Song, by circus director Mish Weaver, two trapeze artists suspended in mid-air engage in a melodic conversation about their hopes for the future. Dressed in sumptuous circus costumes and set to live music, they sway and sing in duet in a lyrical exploration of how anticipation shapes our emotions and actions.
Miss High Leg Kick – PALAIS DE DANSE
This year, Olivier-winning live artist Francesca Baglione (aka Miss High Leg Kick) returns with PALAIS DE DANSE, a multi-sensory flashback (with a modern ‘Twist’) to a night out in late 1950s British dance halls. The offbeat, interactive show with multi-generational appeal celebrates the collective excitement of teenage nights then and now.
Nandita Shankardass – Roots to Rise
A dance-theatre show by Nandita Shankardass, Roots to Rise blends movement, poetry, and music in a call to ecological action. This stirring performance is an invitation to reconnect with the earth, our ancestors, and with one another. Supported by Brighton Festival, Inspirate, and Stockton International Riverside Festival.
Tiago Fonseca – NoMo
The acclaimed physical comedian Tiago Fonseca comes to the Ensemble Festival with NoMo, a clown show about the contemporary addiction to screens. With dazzling juggling and laugh-out-loud moments, Tiago explores how using smartphones affects our body language and real-life encounters.
Sadiq Ali Company – TELL ME
Produced by Turtle Key Arts, TELL ME is the latest circus theatre show from Sadiq Ali Company. This performance combines stunning Chinese pole techniques, acrobatics, and physical storytelling to explore a narrative centred on HIV and the journey of overcoming stigma.
Thirunarayan Productions present – HOLY DIRT
This year’s festival features HOLY DIRT, a new collaboration between renowned physical theatre director David Glass and Vidya Thirunarayan from Vidya Productions. Set to live percussion, the show merges Indian performance styles, particularly Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, with modern physical theatre forms such as bouffon and melodrama. In this visually striking performance, clay, stones, water, and sand erupt across the stage, blending the rawness of the earth with myth and ritual.
Tilly Ingram – The Hide
An audio piece inspired by live birdwatching, The Hide is both an installation and an auditory experience created by artist Tilly Ingram. This work reflects on hidden disabilities and provides a space where visitors can sit, equipped with binoculars and a bird identification guide, to contemplate what may not be immediately visible. As they do so, they can listen to Tilly’s story about living with an invisible disability.
Ramshacklicious and Hijinx – TRUTH
On Sunday, 27 July, outdoor artists Ramshacklicious and the inclusive theatre company Hijinx will take over the Royal Docks in a joyful street performance titled TRUTH. This engaging production challenges societal norms and features a diverse cast of both disabled and non-disabled performers. Blending clowning, physical theatre, and original music, this vibrant performance is interactive and partly improvised, leaving audiences united and filled with a renewed sense of hope.
Certain Blacks has commissioned two brand-new short works from local artists, created especially for this year’s Ensemble Festival. Full details coming soon.
For full details of all the events, including times and exact locations, please visit www.certainblacks.com
FREE EVENT
Ensemble Festival 2025 is on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 July, 12pm-8pm, at Royal Victoria Docks, London E16 1FA, United Kingdom.
Ensemble Festival is part of Without Walls, a network of organisations bringing innovative outdoor arts to towns and cities across England. Find out more on withouthwalls.uk.com
Certain Blacks strive to make Ensemble Festival a greener event each year, the team resolved to reducing the environmental impact through sustainable practices around travel, energy use and materials, while encouraging artists to make low-emission choices and reduce waste wherever possible.
