Another year rolls to its end. And in the sweep of Christmas, it’s easy to slip into the festivities, to not take stock and to just move on. Begin afresh in a few weeks’ time. But that would do a disservice to 2025, in all it’s crazy, creative, turbulent beauty.
2025 has been everything, It’s been another year of growth, perhaps more than we could’ve ever imagined, nearly more than we could’ve handled. It’s been a year of BIG. We’ve completed new commissions and creations, ticking off career goals like returning to Jasmin Vardimon for JV2. We’ve gone from Kent to up and down the country, spending the first three months delivering more outreach than we ever thought possible. From Falmouth, to Bournemouth, to Gloucester, we fell back in love with rural England as we went. Sunny Side brought us back home, as it always does.
We returned to our roots, made a dance film with our Dad and brother, with the boys we grew up with. Took that film and the show it’s connected with on our first traditional national tour. AH! We toured TWO shows at the same time, one on the rural circuit with SHED and then Sunny Side finally got it’s moment in the traditional dance houses across the UK. We got Sunny Side out there (we did it!). A payoff that has been 6 years in the making, felt like a shedding. We’ll never forget looking at the big screen in our hometown Leeds, and seeing SUNNY SIDE glowing up there, in all its glory. We took our small-town story to the big stages, brought audiences together, held them in our world, showed them the vital importance of love and connection.
And on reflection, that has been our biggest takeaway of 2025. Northern Rascals exists to join the dots in a fragmented world. To see ourselves in each other, in each other's stories. To feel a sense of community in our audiences but also in an industry full of freelancers, that can feel so isolating.
This year we’ve danced with thousands of you in the studio (over 1500 people with Sunny Side alone!), and importantly, we’ve provided work for 30 creative freelancers in the North. Northern Rascals are nothing without its team, our silly, loving, brilliant, fiercely talented team. We hold each and everyone of you so close. Now, we’re on the tip of a new year, and from here, 2026 holds so much promise. We have faith that it will be brilliant. Let’s see where it goes...