THREE professional dance companies play their part in special new festival that puts some of most imaginative moves around in the spotlight.

Exploring where we have come from, where we are going and how we got there, Journey Dance Festival promises end to end dance at the Brewery on Saturday, September 30 as one of the most expressive and exciting art forms takes over the Kendal arts centre.

Put together by Brewery dance development officer Emma Thomas, AbouTime Dance Company, Emily May Dance Theatre and Northern Rascals all star in the fabulous celebration of dance, which also features performances from clogging to street dance from community groups as well as dance film, live jams, workshops and a ceilidh.

From 4pm-5pm, the Brewery stages an improvised art jam in the garden which is open to all who dance, like music, spoken word and sketch. If wet, the jam will be transferred into Malt Room.

Come 5pm and Yonlot Cloggers, Westmorland Step Dancers, Bronya Emily School of Dance, Jennifer Dancers and Brewery Youth Dance take centre stage

in the garden (again, if wet in the Malt Room) before the evening performance (7.30pm), which includes Watling Street, a fantastic new work from AbouTime Dance Company, commissioned by the Brewery, which will transport the audience to 1913 and the Suffragist pilgrimage from Carlisle to London collecting 100,000 women along the way. The piece explores women's fight for equality, and will be presented by a constantly moving performance around audience members to represent the days and miles covered on the pilgrimage; the goal - votes for women.

Emily May Dance Theatre and Northern Rascals also perform their Brewery-commissioned pieces during the evening show and The Blackest Day dance film from Hawk Dance Theatre will be screened.

Emily May's piece is based on the work and philosophies of renowned Cumbrian poet and painter John Ruskin, exploring themes of dehumanisation and how the landscape of the Lake District can offer an escape.

Northern Rascal's U is a development of existing work that utilises the heritage of Cumbria and the personal heritage of the performers. It comments on the intertwining nature of the world and how individuals’ lives are constantly crossing whether they are aware of it or not.

Earlier on Saturday, the three dynamic dance outfits will hold workshops: Northern Rascals, from 1pm-2pm; Aboutime Dance Theatre, 2pm-3pm and Emily May Dance Theatre, 3pm-4pm.

Finally, from 9pm local ceilidh band Common Ground will bring the curtain down on a fantastic event and help dance the night away.

Brewery box office 01539-725133.