Ageless Festival: Wild Hope – Leeds Playhouse

Choreographer: TC Howard and Company of People

Choreographic contribution: Izzy Brittain and Tammy Tsang

With a company of twenty dancers between the ages of six months and eighty six years, Wild Hope explores connections between people of all ages, the natural world of the Yorkshire moors and the expressive potential of movement. It is bright with hope.

Opening with an older woman stepping onto stage thoughtful, backpack on, ready for adventure, Wild Hope has an epic, yet intimate feel. Microphone in hand, she tells the audience with calm assurance “There is no straight line, no rush to reach an ending”. These poetic turns of phrase are sprinkled throughout the piece, sometimes delivered live, more often recorded and spoken by the cast. They have a lightness of tone and a weight of wisdom, giving a distinct and multilayered voice to the work.

The movement vocabulary is hugely varied, and very tailored to the performers, who have co-created the piece. There is a delicacy and precision especially with hand gestures, almost like sign language. Soft hands reach like newly sprouted plants, and fluttering down like the butterflies that sometimes adorn the costumes and props.  There are high energy bursts of shoulder shrugging and on the spot sprinting. There is air-born swimming, tap dancing, comedic fighting, Flamenco strutting and slow dancing.

Costumes and props highlight the folkloric qualities further. A grey blue, slightly iridescent material is swirled and stretched onto stage, shifting from a silken pathway, to a source of shelter, to a doorway to another realm, to a calmly waving sea. Costumes are detailed, dapper and styled for the personality of the wearer, but united through colour with rich burgundies, sea-deep teals and bark browns. Everyone looks splendid.

There are so many strong moments. Janetta Maxwell’s gaze as she arches, turning slowly centre stage. A sensitive duet between Mike Thompson and Izzy Brittain with Thompson’s recorded voice speaking profoundly: “I think tree thoughts. I am returning.” Any scene with the youngest cast members  – their delight and wonder is obvious and infectious. Helen Thompson’s grounded tranquility as she holds branches aloft. A hat swapping quintet in the foreground, with the soft stepping company in the background.

The wide spectrum of ages in the company and the apparent trust between them is the bedrock on which Wild Hope is built. There is darkness at the edges – but no fear of it. Only curiosity for the natural cycles of life and hope for the future.

Reviewed on 11th July 2026