Dash Arts

Dash Arts makes new theatre, music, art and dance with international artists that bridge divides We are a small responsive charity.

Dash Arts creates exceptional artistic experiences that bridge divides across art-forms, cultures, languages and communities. Our international productions, live and digital events and education programmes expand the way we see the world. Led by our Artistic Director, Josephine Burton, we immerse ourselves in a particular culture, a question or a theme over an extended period of time to research, create and produce new work. Over the last 15 years, we’ve created award-winning new work with over 9,000 artists and participants to audiences of over 350,000 across the world. Our partners include Sadler’s Wells, Edinburgh International Festival, Roundhouse, Brighton Festival, Lincoln Center Festival and Luminato Festival, Toronto. Major tours in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America have been widely acclaimed and led to numerous awards and nominations including Olivier, Evening Standard, TMA, Herald Angel and Dora awards.

09/09/2026

What happens when ancient epic meets the realities of migration today?

In the latest episode of OffScript, Josephine Burton and Maria Aberg take us behind the scenes of Songs of Solidarity, exploring the research, conversations and unexpected moments that have shaped the project so far.

As Maria puts it:

“It’s very much a piece which speaks to contemporary experience of migration which really is something that is going to touch us all, if it hasn’t already, in the next 20 to 30 years.”

But what does it actually feel like to make a new epic together? When you work slowly, across disciplines and with many different voices, what can emerge?

“There are always often quite unexpected moments of brilliance from different directions.”

Hear Maria and Josephine talk about the process of making Songs of Solidarity, a new epic for a world shaped by migration, displacement and belonging.

🎧 Listen to Songs of Solidarity: Making Epics Epic https://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast-1/songs-of-solidarity-making-epics-epic

A Dash Arts and PROJEKT UTOPIA collaboration.

08/09/2026

Want to know what’s happening behind the scenes at Dash Arts?

Sign up to our newsletter for news, upcoming shows and events, glimpses into work in development, and the ideas and conversations that are shaping what we do.

This month: Songs of Solidarity, Ukrainian art at the V&A, The Reckoning heading to New York, and plenty more from behind the scenes.

sign up now: https://mailchi.mp/dasharts/dash-arts-newsletter

02/09/2026

New podcast out now! Songs of Solidarity: Making Epics Epic

How do you create an epic for the modern world?

In the first episode of our new Songs of Solidarity mini-series, Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Artistic Director of PROJEKT UTOPIA, Maria Aberg take us behind the scenes of the past 18 months - from researching ancient epic traditions with academics to listening to the experiences of people who have migrated.

What does it mean to make something new from stories that have travelled across centuries? How do you make space for many voices instead of one? And what does “future-making” have to do with epic storytelling?

Hear from Josephine and Maria, alongside voices from the project's Oxford R&D: Leo Boix, Sabrina Mahfouz, Saili Katebe and Anna Sulan Masing.

Songs of Solidarity is a co-production between Dash Arts and PROJEKT UTOPIA, currently in research and development.

🎧 Listen to the episode: https://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast-1/songs-of-solidarity-making-epics-epic

01/09/2026

THE RECKONING IS GOING ON TOUR

After its critically acclaimed run at London’s Arcola Theatre, The Reckoning is hitting the road in 2027.

A journalist meets a man in a ruined village outside Kyiv.

“Why don’t you start with when the war began for you?”

Inspired by real witness testimonies gathered by Ukrainian journalists from survivors of the Russian war in Ukraine, The Reckoning brings one extraordinary story of survival, trust and truth to the stage.

★★★★ “A forensic charge sheet in dramatic form”
The Guardian

★★★★★ “There is not a moment that you are not gripped”
Theatre and Tonic

★★★★ “Powerful and Important”
The Stage

★★★★ “Brilliant, sharp, stage craft”
The Reviews Hub

We’re unbelievably excited to bring this vital story to more audiences across the UK, and to keep these voices, experiences and stories at the heart of the conversation.

Now, in 2027, we’re taking The Reckoning to:

• Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
28–30 January

• Chichester Festival Theatre
2–6 February

• Arcola Theatre London
17–27 February

Written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton
Directed by Josephine Burton

Tickets are on sale now! https://www.dasharts.org.uk/the-reckoning

The story is rooted in real witness testimonies gathered by Ukrainian journalists and held in The Reckoning Project’s () verified archive.

25/08/2026

Something is coming…

We’ve got big news to share next week. 👀

A new chapter of our critically acclaimed play The Reckoning is about to begin.

Watch this space.

14/08/2026

What might an epic for our time sound like?

Join Dash Arts and the Institute of Classical Studies this October for Songs of Solidarity: Rewriting the Epic for a Migratory World - an evening of conversation, performance and new writing exploring how epic storytelling can speak to migration, displacement and belonging today.

Hosted at Senate House as part of Josephine Burton’s Practitioner in Residence at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, the evening brings together Josephine Burton, Professor Fiona Macintosh and poet Leo Boix.

The conversation will be woven through with readings from new material created during the development of Songs of Solidarity, offering a glimpse into how lived experience, academic research and poetic imagination are becoming a new, polyphonic epic.

Thursday 15 October 2026
6–7.30pm
Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, London

Come and see the work while it is still taking shape.

Book your place: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/songs-solidarity-rewriting-epic-migratory-world

📸 Firefly Studios

12/08/2026

"Come, Sweetheart."

Emma Hauck's extraordinary drawings are one of the starting points for The Degenerates, our new research project exploring art, creativity, mental health and the artists of the Prinzhorn Collection.

This month, we're taking you further inside that work.

Our August newsletter is out now, with a closer look at The Degenerates, a celebration of the conversations we've been having on OffScript, and an invitation into the research behind Songs of Solidarity.

Plus, the things we've been reading, watching and listening to along the way.

Sign up to our newsletter through the Dash Website

Image: Emma Hauck, “Untitled (Come Sweetheart),” Museum Sammlung Prinzhorn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

05/08/2026

Take a peek behind the curtain.

Every month we share what we're making, what we're thinking about, and the conversations shaping our work.

If you're curious about theatre, visual art, history, politics, creativity, or the research behind new work, our newsletter is for you.

This month we're taking readers inside The Degenerates, our new research project inspired by the extraordinary artists of the Prinzhorn Collection.

Sign up via our website: https://www.dasharts.org.uk/

Image: My Eyes in the Time of Apparition by August Natterer (1913), Prinzhorn Collection.

Music:

04/08/2026

"She was a striking individual. Powerful."

Who was Leonora Carrington?

Painter. Writer. Surrealist. Visionary.

In the second episode of At Loggerheads with Reality, Josephine Burton and curator Vanessa Boni explore the remarkable life of an artist whose imagination was shaped by war, displacement, institutionalisation and an unwavering commitment to creativity.

Recorded at the Freud Museum, the conversation accompanies the exhibition Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal, offering a fascinating insight into Carrington's work, her enduring legacy and the ideas that continue to inspire artists today.

The episode also offers a window into the creative thinking behind The Degenerates, Dash Arts' new play inspired by the artists of the Prinzhorn Collection. As we develop the production, we're asking urgent questions about creativity, mental health, neurodivergence and who gets remembered in the history of art.

🎧 Listen Now: https://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast-1/at-loggerheads-with-reality-part-two-leonora-carrington
🏛️ Visit the Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal exhibition at Freud Museum London https://www.freud.org.uk/exhibitions/leonora-carrington-the-symptomatic-surreal/

03/08/2026

A taste of summer!

This simple Ukrainian salad, created by Olia Hercules, was made live on stage in The Reckoning. Fresh tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, peppery radishes and plenty of dill – it's one of those recipes that speaks of long summer days and home.

As Olia writes:

"This is a salad pretty much everyone makes in Ukraine in the warmer months. When I eat it, synapses fire in my brain and my heart beats faster. To me this is my childhood, my Ukraine, and life itself."

We're sharing the recipe again while the tomatoes are at their best.

And as The Reckoning continues its journey with further development in New York this autumn, it feels like the perfect moment to return to one of the show's most memorable ingredients. More soon.

Address

Unit 22, Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street
London
E16AB

Telephone

+442073776606

Website

http://www.dasharts.org.uk/

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