Why You Should Experience Dance Outside the Theatre and Why the Southbank Centre Is the Perfect Place to Start 

When we say, “dance performance,” your mind probably goes straight to a traditional theatre: rows of seats, a big stage, lights down, curtain up. It’s familiar. It works. 

But We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon isn’t that. 

Yes, dance is at the heart of it, but this is more than a dance show. It’s a full-scale, multidisciplinary takeover of the Southbank Centre, mixing choreography with film, live performance and performative installations. Originally created by the trailblazing French collective (LA)HORDE and revisited by its creators in collaboration with Rambert’s Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer for its UK premier, this is a unique experience that blurs boundaries between contemporary art, pop culture and societal commentary. 

And the best part? You don’t sit and watch it, you walk through it.  

 

So, why leave the theatre at all? 

Because theatre walls can only hold so much. This show isn’t just about movement, it’s about energy, disruption and presence. It doesn’t want to be framed within a proscenium stage. It’s designed to spill into the real world and everyday spaces. 

By bringing dance into everyday spaces, We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon becomes something unpredictable. Something alive. You move through it like an explorer, not an audience member. No one’s telling you where to stand. You decide how you experience it. 

 

It’s not just a show. It’s a journey. 

You won’t be guided to a seat. There is no seat. 

Instead, you’ll drift through the building, choosing your own way. One minute you’re under a terrace watching a dancer spin through a fog of light; the next you’re witnessing a full-on kissing contest staged on the roof of a limo. (Yes, really.) 

You’ll witness scenes of ecstasy, contemplation, simulated violence, and fierce emancipation. What you see, and how you see it, is entirely up to you. 

It’s not just dance, it’s dance meeting protest, theatre meeting installation, people meeting possibility. 

 

Why Southbank Centre? 

Because it’s not a blank canvas. 

It’s full of texture: concrete walls, hidden spaces, loading docks, street-level areas that feel gritty and real. Every corner holds history and potential, and this dance exhibition doesn’t try to hide it. It leans into it. It uses it. 

Think of it as London itself becoming part of the choreography. 

 

What to expect 

No seats. No rules. Just movement.
This isn’t a show you watch. 

Over 50 performers from Rambert, Ballet national de Marseille and beyond lead you through a night of shifting energy:
Protest. Intimacy. Weirdness. Beauty. Release. 

A soundscape that moves with you.
Architecture that becomes part of the performance. 

Some works loop on repeat. Others flash by and vanish.
Some unfold slowly over the course of the night. 

You’ll experience moments of ecstasy, contemplation, even simulated violence,
all shaped by a physical language drawn from pop culture:
action films, musicals, mass movement. 

Contemporary art meets raw energy.
Come ready to move, or be moved. 

 

Come as you are. Leave changed. 

This is dance for anyone who’s ever felt like the theatre wasn’t for them.  

It’s also for dance lovers who want to see the form break its own boundaries. 

So, if you’re curious, if you love discovering new spaces, or if you just want to experience something completely different, come and experience it with us. 

Because when dance steps off the stage, it gets a whole lot closer to life. 

Tickets are on sale now. You in? 

Learn more about the show here.