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Local Community → Community Day 2026

Community Day 2026

Group of dancers performing a coordinated routine outdoors with a woman in a bright red skirt and lace top leading center stage

On Sunday 21 June, we welcomed over 300 guests for our fifth annual Community Day. This year was themed ‘Dancing Across the World’, and aimed to highlight and celebrate both the vibrant diversity of the local borough and the breadth of the RAD’s reach.  

It was a celebration of local dance with seven groups showcasing styles from across the globe. The show started with ArtperUk, which is a Community Interest Company that is dedicated to celebrating and promoting the richness of Peruvian heritage through dance, arts, and creative engagement.  

We then moved over to Natyalaya, a Bharatanatyam dance school founded and directed by Mrs Ragini Rajagopal. Her students presented two styles of Bharatanatyam: Karakam and Thillana.  

Up next was Orleta, a unique Polish folk song and dance group that brought the true spirit and spontaneity of a traditional Polish dance party to the stage.  

Next up was SYꞤC, the youth company from the RAD’s secondary programme, Step into Dance, a partnership with the Jack Petchey Foundation. They presented a Hip Hop style piece to Bonobo scores inspired by the process of murmuration – a gentle reminder to embrace your individuality as it may influence others to embrace theirs. 

We then had the Kambala Community Alliance, which started as a pilot project with the Kambala Estate Resident Association and the RAD to bring more dance to the local housing estates. We were so excited to welcome the group to our community day, where they performed Bulerias, which is the style of Flamenco that is danced at the end of the shows.  

Next up was IRIE! dance theatre, which is Britain’s leading dance theatre company working in the field of African and Caribbean dance fusion. The company set out to create a repertory of work that reflects the African Caribbean influence on the Black British cultural experience. We were joined by their youth company.  

Finally, we had the St George’s Bhangra team, who have been both competing in and teaching Bhangra for more than a decade now. Their performance showed a few core elements of traditional Punjabi culture, including jhummar, a slower and more fluid dance, luddi, a joyful and bouncy dance and dhamaal, a heavy, fast-paced style focused purely on rhythm and celebration. 

Our guests also took part in  African drumming, Flamenco, and arts and crafts workshops.

Group of children dancing on a dimly lit stage bathed in red light during a performance
Children seated around a table drawing with markers on colorful papers during an art activity braids visible in the foreground left
Children in colorful traditional folk costumes dancing in a line on stage
Group of performers in colorful traditional outfits dancing on stage with arms raised
Stage performance with a couple dancing center and a chorus of women in colorful ruffled dresses under purple stage lighting
Group of dancers in bright traditional Indian costumes performing a coordinated dance on a stage with a purple gradient backdrop
Group of dancers performing on a stage with a pink to purple gradient backdrop audience silhouettes visible in the foreground
Group of diverse people seated in a row playing large African drums djembes together in a classroom or auditorium setting with red seats behind them
Group of dancers on a stage in red and black outfits clapping and facing each other under warm lighting

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