For anyone discovering The Brown Suite for the first time, what is the show?

Nahum: “The Brown Suite is a dance-theatre work inspired by the music of James Brown, Etta James and Sam Cooke. It’s set in a social space in 1970s New York and follows six friends over the course of one night – the relationships, the joy, the tension, the flirtation, the conflict and everything that happens when people come together in a space where they can really be themselves.”

Darius: “At its heart, it’s about people. The music gives us the landscape, but the characters and their relationships drive the piece. We wanted to create something that feels alive and familiar – where you recognise the energy of being in a room with your friends, but also see how quickly that energy can shift”.

Nahum: “What we didn’t want was a tribute act –  six songs and a nostalgia trip. The moment you walk in, you’re a seventh person at that gathering. You know these dynamics because you’ve lived them: the friend who’s had one drink too many, the couple pretending they’re not a couple, the person quietly holding the whole room together. One night, six people, and by the end you know exactly who they are to each other”.

How would you describe who you are as artists and the work you create together?

Nahum: “We’re both dancers and choreographers, but I think what BlacBrik is really interested in is the intersection of the forms we love – ballet, contemporary, jazz, funk, African diasporic movement, social dance. Not any one of them on its own, but what happens where they meet”.

Darius: “Because each of those forms already tells a story in its own way – ballet has a certain relationship to line and restraint, social dance has a relationship to individuality and call-and-response. We’re interested in what it means when a character can move between those languages, because that tells you something about who they are, not just how well they can move”.

Nahum: “So it’s not decoration. The form a character moves in is part of the storytelling – it’s part of the language of the show, the same as the music or the setting”.

You started working with Fundamentally Dance when you performed Death of the Bachelor at Ballet Nights 007 in London. How does it feel to be touring your very own full-length work across the UK with The Brown Suite today?

Nahum: “It’s honestly quite surreal. We performed a six-minute excerpt of Death of the Bachelors at Ballet Nights 007, so going from that to creating a full-length work and then seeing it travel around the country is a huge step”.

Darius: “There’s also something really special about the fact that the relationship with Fundamentally Dance grew from that first performance. We’re not just presenting a bigger version of what we did before – we’ve had the opportunity to develop our language, our storytelling and our ideas on a much larger scale”.

Nahum: “And ultimately, getting to see audiences experience something that started as conversations between the two of us is probably the most rewarding part”.

Darius: “Six minutes, you can hide behind a strong idea and good stamina. A full evening asks something different of you –  pacing, restraint, knowing when to let a scene breathe. That’s been the real education”.

How has James Brown’s music been present in your life?

Nahum: “James Brown has always felt bigger than just music to me. There’s something incredibly physical about it. You don’t just hear James Brown – you feel the rhythm in your body.

“Actually, my relationship with his music goes back further than any ofmy professional training – I auditioned for my vocational ballet school dancing to James Brown. So in a strange way, he’s been part of every serious step I’ve taken as a dancer, not just this show”.

Darius: “And there’s such a huge range within his music. There’s aggression, humour, sensuality, vulnerability, swagger and joy. That range gives you so much to work with as a performer and choreographer”.

Nahum: “There’s a reason his music has had such an enormous influence on dance and popular culture. The rhythm demands a physical response, and for us that became a really important starting point for the work”.

What ideas, experiences or conversations have sat at the heart of your work on The Brown Suite?

Darius: “One of the biggest things has been community – what happens when people create a space for themselves. We were interested in social spaces and what they can mean beyond simply being somewhere to go out”.

Nahum: “We were also interested in relationships. Friendship, attraction, competition, vulnerability, masculinity, femininity – all those little negotiations that happen between people when they’re together”.

Darius: “And we didn’t want to romanticise the period. There’s joy in the piece, but there’s also fracture. The social world we’re creating can be beautiful and complicated at the same time”.

Nahum: “A lot of our conversations kept coming back to who holds the room and who’s holding themselves together while they do it. Six friends means six different jobs in that dynamic – the peacemaker, the instigator, the one everyone’s protecting without saying so. We wanted the choreography to carry those roles even in the moments where nobody’s speaking”.

Darius: “It was important to us that the fracture felt earned, too – not a twist for the sake of drama, but the kind of thing that’s been sitting under the surface of a friendship group for years before it finally comes out on a night like this one”.

You have a very diverse training. Is The Brown Suite the place where you are able to bring all your different movement knowledge together?

Nahum: “Definitely. Both of us have moved through quite different worlds as dancers, and I think this piece gives us permission to bring those experiences together without having to choose one”.

Darius: “Ballet and contemporary technique give us certain tools – line, strncture, weight, space, precision. Then there are the social and African diasporic movement traditions that bring rhythm, groove, individuality and a different relationship to the music”.

Nahum: “We’re not interested in simply putting those things next to each other. The exciting part is what happens when they actually influence one another”.

Darius: “Practically, it means a dancer might hit a classical line one beat and let it collapse into something completely social and loose the next, without a seam. That’s not a trick – it’s how people actually move when they’re comfortable in a room, half showing off and half just existing”.

To create this new piece with Fundamentally Dance, where did the work begin, and how did you turn that starting point into movement? What have you learnt from each other?

Darius: “A lot of it began with the music and the world we wanted the audience to enter. We weren’t starting with choreography for choreography’s sake. We were asking: who are these people? Where are they? What happened before this moment? What happens when the music changes?”

Nahum: “Then the movement grew out of those questions. Sometimes it starts with rhythm, sometimes with a character, sometimes with a relationship between two people. The choreography becomes a way of revealing what’s happening underneath”.

Darius: “Working together has also taught us how different our instincts can be – and how useful that difference is. We don’t always approach a problem in the same way, but that usually pushes the work somewhere neither of us would have arrived at alone.

What is the best creative advice you have received?

Nahum: “One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received came from Mark Baldwin OBE – trust your instincts. You can learn from everybody, and you should, but eventually you have to make decisions based on what you actually believe in”.

Darius: “And don’t be afraid to edit. Sometimes the hardest thing is knowing when something isn’t serving the bigger picture, especially when you’ve become attached to it”.

Nahum: “You have to be willing to let the work change. The first idea isn’t necessarily the final idea”.

Where do you tap your inspiration from? What is your favourite film?

Darius: “Inspiration comes from everywhere – music, people, architecture, fashion, photography, film, conversations. Film especially, because a director can build a whole world for you without anyone ever explaining how they feel”.

Nahum: “We actually properly align on this one –  we’re both completely obsessed with Quentin Tarantino. Kill Bill is probably the film we’d both put at the top. It’s not just that we love it, it’s that we love what he does –  the storytelling isn’t always linear, it moves between mediums, animation drops in and out, and the music is so specific to every moment”.

Darius: “The soundtrack does half the storytelling in his films. That’s something we think about constantly with The Brown Suite – how specific a piece of music can be to a character or a moment, not just a mood”.

What do you hope audiences carry with them after experiencing The Brown Suite?

Nahum: “I hope they leave feeling something. Hopefully they’ve laughed, danced in their seats, maybe recognised something of themselves in one of the characters”.

Darius: “I also hope they leave with a sense of the power of social spaces – the importance of having places where people can gather, connect, express themselves and simply exist together”.

Nahum: “And ultimately, I want them to remember the people. The music is iconic, but we want the audience to care about these six people and the night they’ve just experienced. If they leave wanting to talk about what happened between them, then we’ve done our job”.

Darius: “lf they’re still arguing about who was right and who was wrong on the drive home, we’ve done our job twice over”.

The Brown Suite is at the Opera House Manchester on Friday 23 October 2026

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Fasten your seat belts because you’re in for a ride, with no let-up in this roller coaster of a two-hour show.

It opens on a scene reminiscent of ‘Grease’ – a stage full of muscly young men working on cars and girls in swinging circle skirts working the nearby bar. The familiarity of Bizet’s Carmen score, with additional orchestration by Terry Davies, immediately draws us into the life of small-town Harmony. Its vibrancy is matched by the energy of Bourne’s choreography. Everywhere you look there are pairs of dancers, each telling their own story of playful youth, seduction and lust. When in the first five minutes dancers strip off and head for a cold shower Bourne sends the audience a tongue-in-cheek knowing that this show too darn hot for its own good.

As you’ve probably guessed, this isn’t the Carmen opera in a dance form. Rather Bourne has taken the essence of the tale along with the music to create something new, but equally thrilling. Bourne’s new story takes the desire and violence of the original and layers it with the noir fatalism of James M. Cain’s novel ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, giving the piece a sticky inevitability.

Here the handsome drifter is Luca, an imposing and mysterious Will Bozier. He crackles with sexual energy attracting both men and women and destroying any chance Harmony had of living up to its name.

His first conquest is the beautiful and feisty Lana (Cordelia Braithwaite), a name that nods to Lana Turner who played Cora in the 1946 film version of Cain’s thriller.

Alan Vincent, who played Luca in the 2000 premiere returns now as garage owner and Lana’s abusive husband, Dino. He is a giant of a man and yet Bozier lifts him as if he weighs no more than a child.

The acting as well as the dancing from this cast is phenomenal as they draw us into their dark and complex world. Leonardo McCorkindale captures this to heartbreaking effect as young Angelo who is also captivated and seduced by this enigmatic stranger.

Betrayal and jealousy fire the story forward to its tragic end. It’s a scorcher of a show made for these hot summer nights.

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is at Lowry. Salford from 23-27 June 2026. Age recommendation 12+

Read our interiew with Matthew Bourne.

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Motionhouse is known for bringing its unique fusion of dance and circus to large-scale, bespoke entertainment. You might have seen them perform at festivals or at major events such as the opening show of Birmingham 2022 Festival or the National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome event in Liverpool.

This new show, created for an indoor theatre space, has the same big-event feel, placing their performers in a space which combines multiple moving objects, fast-paced film projection and an absorbing soundscape.

The show, created by Finnan together with the company’s associate director Daniel Massarella and the dancers, is an artistic and physical response to society’s increasing polarisation and the crises populations face globally from natural disasters like wildfires and floods.

As Finnan explains in the programme notes: ‘The best of humanity is when we put the needs of others before our own’ and this forms the narrative arc for the show as the dancers follow a path from isolated darkness, eventually working together towards the light.

Act One ‘Decent into Darkness’ opens onto a frenetic, fast-moving world where dancers move around a blur of faces among London streets, transport, buildings and rooftops.

Simon Dormon’s fluid set sees the city projected onto a main backdrop and two 3D triangular wedge shapes which the dancers move and weave between taking us from a gamer’s bedroom to a city park to the rush of the Underground. The result feels like watching a series of video shorts, almost like dance for a Tik Tok generation.

There is so much to see that it is hard to believe they are creating this with only 7 dancers, who are such a phenomenal ensemble that they all deserve mention – Olly Bell, Llewelyn Brown, Dylan Davies, Alex Macnab, Blair Moore, Sophie O’Leary and Beth Pattison.

The circus skills come to the fore as the set moves to a series of geometric shapes, where two dancers battle to free themselves from a prison of plastic wrapping. This aspect feels unlike anything I’ve seen before.

Act Two ‘Finding the Light’ follows a clearer narrative. There is a much calmer feel to it, although the dancing and circus skills on display are no less impressive. Here the two triangles are transformed into a 4m high, 45-degree ramp which becomes a metaphor for the heights dancers need to scale to reach the light. They can only do this together in what becomes an emotionally moving scene of strength and trust.

We are left with a feeling of amazement at how these young dancers trust that they will be caught when they fall; trust the strength of the dancer on whose shoulders they stand, and trust as they form a human ladder that those who scale it are not going to lean on a part of their body to cause pain. It is an incredible spectacle of community, support and courage that leaves us with a feeling of hope in humanity. In what feels like an increasingly divided world Motionhouse has given us something wonderful.

Motionhouse Hidden was at Lowry, Salford on 30 January 2026 before continuing on tour.

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When Bourne first announced The Red Shoes, tickets sold-out before its premiere season opened, such was the anticipation for this new work. The show toured again in 2019, but the run was sadly cut short by the 2020 Covid lockdowns. So, this tour feels landmark not just for its decade-long anniversary, but also for the excitement of seeing the production as if for the first time with Ashley Shaw, Dominic North, and Andy Monaghan reprising the principal roles they originated in 2016.

Those unfamiliar with the ballet will likely have some recollection of the story from the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale and Academy award-winning 1948 film starring Moira Shearer. Both versions won legions of fans and Bourne more than nods to this legacy in the cinematic scale of Lez Brotherston’s design, the telling of the fairy tale as a ballet within the ballet, and the nostalgic, post-war setting.

From the opening scene there is a sense of immersion into another world with a proscenium arch drawing us into a silent-movie theatre screen. The arch later revolves to switch the action seamlessly from onstage to backstage, home to theatre. While the ever-surprising set takes us on a journey through a range of other locations from real-world Monte Carlo and Covent Garden to more dream-like black and white sequences reminiscent of Wizard of Oz.

In terms of following a story, the main thread is a simple one – dancer with Ballet Lermontov, Victoria Page (Ashley Shaw) is given red ballet shoes from its impresario Boris Lermontov (Andy Monaghan) who urges her to forgo everything in pursuit of becoming the greatest dancer in the world. Meanwhile her heart is torn when she falls for composer, Julian Craster (Dominic North). The shoes have a life of their own creating an obsessive pull between art and life that eventually dance her to her death. Sound melodramatic? It is. And made all the more so by Terry Davies dramatic score featuring early music of Hollywood composer, Bernard Herrmann, best known for his work on Hitchcock films.

Fans of the film and children’s tale will no doubt be mesmerised by the story all over again, because Bourne has taken all the best bits and injected what the other art forms couldn’t – the real passion of live dance. And what a celebration of dance it is, with so many different styles on show from traditional en-pointe ballet to athletic contemporary split leaps; ballroom to a comical Egyptian walk.

In the programme notes Bourne describes The Red Shoes as ‘A personal love letter to a life spent in theatre and dance’ and that is exactly how it feels to watch. Open your heart and be swept away.

Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures The Red Shoes is at Lowry, Salford from 25 to 29 November 2025. Age Guidance 7+

New Adventures returns to Lowry in June 2026 with The Car Man.

Read our interview with Matthew Bourne.

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The Nigerian megalopolis of Lagos is massive, youthful and exciting. Due to become the world’s biggest city by the turn of the century, it is one of the beating hearts of Africa. And this autumn the spirit of Lagos comes to UK stages in a dance show by Nigeria-based The QDance Company.

Created by Lagos-born dancer and choreographer Qudus Onikeku, Re:INCARNATION is inspired by the city, its people, its past and its present.

Following its UK premiere at London’s Southbank Centre, the production comes to The Lowry, Salford on 8 & 9 October. Featuring ten dancers and two musicians, it promises to be a rich exploration of one of the world’s most fascinating cultures.

“Lagos is very much captured in the show,” says Qudus, whose work has been showcased across the globe. “The energy of Lagos, the vibrancy, the youthfulness, the craziness, the madness, the beauty, the ugliness – are what I was really inspired by.

“This is a show that was created in Lagos, and it is showcasing the young energy encapsulated in the city with a lot of joy and a lot of colour.”

Re:INCARNATION combines a live soundtrack featuring West African music genre Afrobeats with dynamic dancing – contemporary, salsa, hip hop and street styles wacking and krump. Vivid masks and costumes and colour-soaked lighting complete the picture. For Qudus, all the elements are fundamental to creating a successful spectacle.

“I try as much as I can to involve the artists, whether it’s the costumier, the lighting designer, the sound artist, the dancers or the scenographer, in a collective creative process where we also highlight the authenticity and originality of each individual,” he says.

In Re:INCARNATION Qudus is exploring how young people fuse life today with influences from the past.

He is connecting that spirit of youth with the ancient philosophy of the Yoruba people, who have lived in Nigeria for centuries.

“The notion of dying and rebirth, and dying and rebirth again, in a continuous circle of reincarnation, is more or less what I wanted to capture in the show. The young dancers, despite their seeming disconnection with ancient philosophies, are in fact reproducing the codes and forms of the past without being conscious of it.

“The Yoruba don’t believe in life after death, they believe in different cycles of life, different types of incarnations. An experience doesn’t need to be in one lifetime, it could be in cycles of lifetimes. We try to remember that when we do a performance.”

Qudus trained in France but returned to Lagos in 2014, establishing the social enterprise The QDance Center and building a reputation for new and exciting work. Re:INCARNATION was premiered in France in 2021 and has toured extensively since then.

“One amazing thing about this show is that whether we are in Europe or America or Africa, people connect to it in a very interesting way,” he says. “Maybe that’s because it was created after Covid and Black Lives Matter and there was a certain kind of openness and an awareness of alternative philosophies or ideologies.

“Also Instagram and TikTok have done a good job in popularising dance and music forms coming from West Africa so it feels like we are adding into a tradition that is already ahead of us.”

Qudus is looking forward to the show’s tour to nine UK cities which is presented by Dance Consortium, a group of 19 large-scale venues with a shared passion for bringing the best global contemporary dance to Britain and Ireland.

“We are very excited about Re:INCARNATION coming to the UK,” he says. “It is a country that has a long history with Nigeria and Nigerian culture. So this work becomes an addition to that palette, or archive, of Nigerian artists and artforms which have been able to make a significant presence in the UK.

“I’m talking about the likes of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Fela Kuti, Ben Okri, Chris Ofili. These are people that I consider to be like kin. To be in the spaces where they have been seen and heard is really an honour for me.”

Qudus first toured the UK as a solo performer in 2012 returning in 2015, and the country holds a special place for another reason – shopping!

“The UK always feels like home. I never knew how many similarities there were between Lagos and London before I went to London. I love the shopping, I love going to the pound stores – I always find something interesting there!

“Also I’ve always read my books in English, so every time I’ve had the opportunity to go to the UK, I go to book stores a lot. I love the Caribbean music – I have been there for the Notting Hill Carnival.”

And he is eager to share Re:INCARNATION with British audiences.

“It’s a show that is quite multi-faceted but one thing that I know people have always got out of it is this vibrancy, this young energy that we are bringing. It’s a shared moment of beauty and vivacity and I hope that we can add joy to our world.”

The QDance Company’s Re:INCARNATION is at The Lowry, Salford on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 October 2024.

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Death Trap is a new double-bill from Ben Duke, which links two of his previous pieces for Rambert – Cerberus (2022) and his Olivier nominated, Goat (2017). For those who have seen the pieces before, here they remain distinct either side of an interval, but the first piece ends without a curtain call for the dancers and on their return, there is some fluidity in characterisation and, in keeping with the meta theme, there is self-referencing between the two.

Duke is known for creating work that explores the overlaps between dance and theatre, and this programme feels more a work of combined arts than dance. In some ways this makes it a perfect entry point for people unfamiliar with contemporary dance. There is no need to be concerned you won’t know what it is about because this is made clear through dialogue and there is lots of it. For dance purists this could feel a little irritating, but the layers upon layers of referencing will likely give everyone something to chuckle at, even if that something is themselves.

The evening opens with Cerberus, loosely based on the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice. Here the mix of real and unreal is used to create a sense of the confusion and disbelief that often accompanies grief. Aishwarya Raut (all characters use dancers’ real names) introduces the concept from a mic off stage. Her entrance at stage right signifies her birth and exiting stage left she dies – or does she?

There is a slapstick comedy element to Antonello Sangiradi’s attempts both to bring back his friend and to stop other dancers experiencing the same fate, but the grief in this mythical tale is so deep-seated there were no audible laughs from the audience on Thursday evening. That said, the light-hearted take on an ancient tale stops the early evening from falling hard into melancholy and the dancers, fuelled by the thumping energy of Romarna Campbell on drums, don’t let us lose sight of life by turning this funeral cortège into a gothic club scene.

After the interval we are all relieved to find Aishwarya is indeed still alive and has now taken the role of a roving TV reporter who insists on getting verbal explanations from each of the dancers about what their movements mean. The audience warms much more to the comedy in this piece with some genuine laugh out loud moments as well as spontaneous whoops and applause, particularly after the exhilarating choreography to Ain’t Got No, I Got Life.

Goat is inspired by the music and spirit of Nina Simone performed on stage by a three-piece band with singer, Sheree DuBois. While this gives a sense of something older, Death Trap as a whole is very much a tale for today and one aimed more at a Gen Z audience.

The overall narrative of Goat is a dark one, focused on a bizarre ritual where one dancer, Jonathan Wade, is chosen to be sacrificed by dancing himself to death. It is all played out on TV with on stage camera zoomed into the dancers’ faces and played back on a screen at the front of the stage. At times there is so much going on with the cameras, the band, the singer, and the acting, that it is not surprising the dance loses focus. But when given centre stage the dance is both intense and mesmerising.

Overall, I enjoyed my first step into self-conscious, meta dance comedy, but I know if I was 20 again, I would have loved it. This was clear in the audience response too. It is a rollercoaster of melodrama, so strap in tight for an emotional ride through the hormone-fuelled passions and fears of youth.

Rambert Dance Death Trap is at The Lowry from 18 – 20 April 2024. As a partner company of The Lowry, Rambert will return again to The Lowry in the Autumn as they bring back Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby from 22 to 26 October 2024.

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Of course, the origins of this much-loved ballet are older still, having premiered at Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg in 1890 with choreography by Marius Petipa. It has stood the test of time because of its ability to enchant both those experiencing their first ballet and ballet enthusiasts alike. And, even if you’ve only heard the music ‘Once upon a Dream’ thanks to Disney, you will instantly recognise Tchiakovsky’s uplifting, romantic score, here played live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Paul Murphy.

As the curtain lifts, we are immediately transported into a grand royal court, decorated with rich gold drapes that stretch the full width of the Lowry’s huge Lyric stage. The costumes, many of which have been restored for this production, are equally striking with a palate of gold, black, peach, and blue, made from luscious fabrics of velvet, taffeta, layered lace and sequins. It makes for a fairytale vision, with the Sleeping Beauty, Aurora wearing a sparkling lace and sequinned tutu, spinning on-pointe like the perfect, music-box ballerina.

This simple tale of good versus evil, makes for effective contrasts of light and dark in the characters, the music, the costumes, and the lighting, none more so than between Daria Stanciulescu’s scheming, Fairy Carabosse, carried villainously high on a sedan chair, and Ellis Small’s gentle, almost floating, Lilac Fairy.

Taking on the challenging principal role of Princess Aurora, Momoko Hirata strikes a balance of being both delicate and strong. She is well-matched with Max Maslen, a commanding Prince Florimund, whose stage presence provides an emotional depth to the technical brilliance of their partner dances.

All the dancers are wonderfully light of foot, and there is much to admire in their technical detail and strength. However, focus on the dancers’ skill is never at the expense of the narrative, which draws us in to this world of deep forests, spells, and glittering balls.

The grand finale is joyously danced by the whole assembly with gold confetti adding a final touch of magic to the evening.

BRB The Sleeping Beauty is at The Lowry, Salford from 7 -9 March 2024.

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The company comes to The Lowry, Salford with a triple bill of contemporary works by some of the world’s leading Spanish and Latin American choreographers – and artistic director Inês Bogéa is keen to share São Paulo’s electric energy.

Founded in 2008, São Paulo Dance Company has produced more than 100 classical and contemporary works, toured nearly 20 countries and performed to more than 900,000 people. And now local audiences can enjoy their expertise.

“São Paulo is a dance company with a very special Brazilian accent,” Inês says. “We have the passion for dance, we have the energy of Brazil and we love to share that with audiences around the world.”

Inés, who was the founding director when the company was created by the Brazilian state government 15 years ago, says music and dance are integral to life in her country.

“Movement and the sensation of dance is so much a part of our culture, we celebrate life through dance,” she says. “We dance around the kitchen when we are cooking, we dance at a party with our friends, we dance because we are happy and we also dance when sometimes we are sad.

“We have a temperature which is hot, we have sun for most parts of the year, and I think this affects our emotions.”

The tour features a triple bill – Anthem by Spanish choreographer Goyo Montero, Gnawa by Spain’s Nacho Duato and Agora by Cassi Abranches, who was born in São Paulo and has recently choreographed part of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet.

“The three works talk about rituals in different ways,” says Inês. “Anthem looks at how we are connected through a common purpose that leads us to recognise ourselves as the same group. Gnawa talks about the rituals of people who live in the North of Africa and their connections with the natural world. And in Agora we are talking about time, memories and the reverberation of Brazilian dance.”

The tour of 14 towns and cities is presented by Dance Consortium, a group of 19 venues across the UK and Ireland who have come together to bring leading contemporary dance companies from across the globe to local audiences.

“I hope that on this tour the audiences enjoy themselves and feel connected with the energy, emotions and beauty of the dancers,” Inês says. “An audience is a very important part of a performance.

“We are looking forward to showing audiences a little bit of our culture and, through the dance, we will all feel the energy of Brazil.”

Sao Paulo Dance Company is at The Lowry, Salford on 12 and 13 March 2024.

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The production opens with the drop of a blood-red curtain to reveal two, young, lifeless bodies on a mortuary slab. Everyone knows this is where the tragedy is taking us, but after a brief reminder, we’re swept back in time to ride the emotions that drove this sorry end.

Here Verona has become The Verona Institute, which sounds much more inviting than it is. Lez Brotherston’s usually elaborate set and costume designs are stripped back to an austere starkness. The white, tiled setting is a cross between a thankfully long-gone asylum and a human lab experiment. Here young people, dressed in head-to-toe white to match the soulless decor, live as in-mates where they are separated by gender, confined by metal fencing, and policed by abusive guards.

Terry Davies has created a new, pared down arrangement of Prokofiev’s score, introducing Dance of the Knights (made popular as the theme tune to TV show The Apprentice) almost immediately, with the rousing march inspiring robotic choreography reflecting how the young people are being kept under control. Their only freedom seems to be in expressing their demons during what look like group therapy sessions.

Aside from the comfort of each other, Friar Laurence (here Rev Bernadette Laurence) and her disco, glitter ball, provides the only hope for these lost souls. And it is under this spinning globe of sparkling light that Juliet first catches sight and then locks lips with new boy, Romeo. And what a kiss it is! Bourne’s choreography capturing the intensity of young love with the two young dancers spinning and rolling in a mammoth, energetic embrace.

Paris Fitzpatrick and Cordelia Braithwaite are at once both vulnerable and strong as Romeo and Juliet. Their dance moves are executed with precision and acted with passion that grabs you by the gut and sweeps you along in their romance.

There is a nod to West Side Story and Grease in elements of the choreography. But while referencing the success of what’s gone before, Bourne’s unique stamp is still evidently clear.

Nine of the dancers are making their professional debuts with New Adventures through this production and young creatives have worked alongside the regular team on all aspects of the show. The result is a rawness that feels very much a Romeo and Juliet for today, touching on many issues at the heart of young people’s concerns – mental health, sexual and physical abuse, homophobia, generational divisions, and knife crime in a frank and bold way. If teenage love could be captured in a dance, this is it.

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet is at The Lowry, Salford from 11-15 July 2023. Age guidance 14+

Read our interview with Sir Matthew Bourne.

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Rows of the theatre’s seats are removed to allow the stage to be expanded into a huge white square, which seems to glow of its own accord.

In the aptly-titled first work, Mechanism, six dancers seem like parts in a well-oiled machine. Their sharp, articulated movements appear dictated by the relentless tick of a metronome; their intricate hand gestures and isolated steps interlock, repeat and build in a fascinating display of precision and momentum. Lee Jaeyong’s choreography eventually breaks this defined pattern to become more exuberant and rave-like, with the dancers jumping on the spot to the beat (albeit in perfect unison), uplit by a golden ring of light.

Everything Falls Dramatic – another work for six dancers – is more enigmatic and less immediately accessible. It begins with choreographer Her Sungim skipping and leaping across the stage with childlike freedom, before she is joined by the remaining dancers. Their slow, tranquil section of floorwork is performed with no music and facing away from the audience; they roll fluidly across the stage and fall in sequence into beautifully arched back bends from kneeling, creating the illusion of waves breaking the surface.

This calm suddenly dissipates as the electro-acoustic score kicks in; the dancers run, stamp, convulse and swing their arms to the infectious beat with a primal energy, bringing the drama promised by the work’s title. Gradually, this pace eases and the music subsides, allowing the audience to notice the power of the dancers’ breathing. They sink to the floor and fold into a heap of bodies, as scarlet petals rain down on them from above.

The profound discipline, dynamism and musicality of this company is on clear display in both works and makes for a truly electric performance. Kontemporary Korea continues with a triple bill at The Lowry on 6 May.

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