So having taken the show on the road, Around the World in 80 Days is now done and dusted (although talks are afoot in a couple of other venues...)

Recent rehearsals for Sunday's Around the World in 80 Days have been a bit warm, it feels as though we've really traveled to Hawaii, Brazil, Morocco, Egypt... Hoping that we'll make the audience at Birmingham Fest feel transported too!

I felt that this picture says more than a cartoon could about the laughs, hard work, and closeness of the troupe. Over about three or four months we've gone from some friends, some strangers, and some total none dancers, to a tight knit group making jokes at each others (and the directors' and producers') expense, offering advice, and providing support in areas well beyond the dance studio.

It's more than just moving to music. Taking part in this dance show with the Nottingham Dance Collective has helped us explore emotions and their portrayal, see what we can endure physically and mentally, develop our core muscles and strengthen our bodies (and drop a dress size!) as well as developing body confidence and greater understanding of how we look and move. It's also given us valuable snapshots into other cultures and how they use dance and music in their societies, and the chance to develop friendships that will last outside of this experience. 

As it says on the wall of the toilets at the dance studios "Home is where you dance with others, and dancing is life."
Even if only for a few months, we've all found a new home, and made a new family.

At the culmination of her dramatic solo, where Bea portrays the character Aouda being forced to dance to her death, Mr Fogg (in the form of Yan, our male lead) steps in to rescue her. As she span and fell to his feet, arms outstretched, the audience were amazed at Bea's bravery to pull off such a move. 

The truth is she stepped oddly, broke a toe, and fell! Fortunately the choreography called for her to be half carried from the stage, so she could bear the injury with grace until off stage. As this was only the fourth dance in the show, she was strapped up, and carried on! 

In the dance studio thus far changes have been completed with a degree of discretion, nipping to the Practice in Style shop changing room or the toilets. At the first full dress rehearsal this weekend, we had one changing room to use at the venue, which combined with the speed that changes need to be made, and a growing comfort among the troupe,led to our one male dancer being wholly accepted into the troupe. 

It's not emasculating him, it's a strange compliment to his being such a gent that the girls all feel comfortable around him.

If you are fed up of cloudy, stuffy weather, then you really want to go to France, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, India, China, Brazil, America and Hawaii for a bright and breezy spectacle of dance! 

We can't promise you sunshine, but you will get smiles, bouncy tunes, fighting, flirting, romance, Tina Turner, and Carmen Miranda with a hat full of fruit. 

This show is all locally run and produced in Nottingham, from the costumes to the routines to the graphic design, so coming along also supports local businesses and artists in a time when many are feeling the pinch. The Nottingham Post has covered the show looking at this angle, and how it's a positive experience for the confidence of all the new dancers involved. See the article here! 

Around the World in 80 Days is on at the Djanogly City Academy Theatre, Sherwood Rise on Saturday, June 22 from 8pm and at New Art Exchange, Gregory Boulevard on Sunday, June 23 at 4pm. Tickets are £12 (£8 concs). 
Get your tickets for Nottingham  here!

Exciting times!


We're in full promotional sway, including the lady in charge of our press releases asking for high res copies of the cartoons to send out in in her press packs. My work may soon end up in the local papers...

Tickets for all the Nottingham based shows that these cartoons are building towards (really, we're a lot more professional than these make out we are!) are now on sale, and as one of the performances is a special show taking place in an arts venue - you'd better grab a ticket fast.
Get yours here.

For a dance with costumes full of fruit and flowers, this routine oozes so much cheese you could serve it all as the last course of a formal dinner. Flirty, silly, camp and gleeful, we're loving it even if the lyrics, by admission of the translator, make only the smallest sense (something about how she loves the particular rhythms of the drums where she lives, and misses hearing them) Achica chica boom chic!

This part of the routine is forever accompanied in my head with "UNH, UNH! Lalala" for eack flick and shimmy of the shoulders - regardless of what the music sounds like, this is the noise the moves 'make'.