Scottish Dance Theatre opens £15 ticket lottery for its 40th anniversary gala

Fancy an evening of dance in Dundee? Scottish Dance Theatre is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a special gala at Dundee Rep on 31 October 2026, with a ticket lottery offering the chance to buy seats for £15 each.

BBC broadcaster Pauline McLean will host the one-night-only celebration, bringing together current dancers, returning artists and audience favourites for an evening spanning the company’s past, present and future.

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How to enter the £15 ticket lottery

A limited number of discounted tickets are available through the lottery, with entries closing on Monday 12 October.

Successful entrants will be selected at random on Friday 16 October and given a limited time to purchase up to four tickets at £15 each. The lottery offers access to reduced-price seats, rather than free tickets.

Forty dancers take to the stage

At the heart of the evening is 40 by 40, a one-off improvised performance featuring 40 former and current Scottish Dance Theatre dancers. Glasgow-based musician Jer Reid will provide live accompaniment as artists from across the company’s history reunite on the Rep stage.

The programme also includes excerpts from O’ Chiadain an Lo, Rotten Work, The Game of Life, RECollect and Moving Cloud. Guest performances include The Bull, the Princess, and the Hero and not for glory.

Explore the archives, then join the disco

Away from the performances, a walkthrough archive exhibition will explore four decades of Scottish Dance Theatre. The gala will also mark the launch of Memory in Motion, a new book by Dr Andy Henry drawing on the company’s newly assembled archive.

Afterwards, audiences can step onto the stage themselves for a disco with Dundee-based DJ Peace & Jam.

Pauline McLean said:

“It’s been a privilege to watch Scottish Dance Theatre grow and expand over the years, and an honour to be invited to host the Anniversary Gala which will celebrate that extraordinary story.”

Artistic Director Joan Clevillé described the evening as a celebration of everyone who has shaped the company, bringing generations of artists together while looking towards its future.

Founded in 1986 and based at Dundee Rep, Scottish Dance Theatre has performed everywhere from Scottish village halls to international venues across four continents. This anniversary celebration brings that story home to Dundee.