Get you some dance in ‘07

Happy flailing new year! Now, go get you some dance. Three ace recommendations:

1. London’s International Mime festival

Catch the premiere of a new full length work called Arc at the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House, 22-23 January. The Company, Ockham’s Razor, is a group of aerialistes who combine mime, dance and excellently clever aerialistics to tell simple stories beautifully. I saw them perform at last year’s Resolution! and they were a breath of fresh air. Tickets for Arc are only £10-£15 (£8 concessions) and it’s a 90 minute show with an interval. The Linbury is an intimate studio theatre beneath the Opera House with a bar decked out with great dance photos and truly excellent toilet facilities. These things are important, I know.

2. Sadlers Wells Sampled

There’s a brand new, exciting thing happening at Sadlers that’s IDEAL for flailers. On 2-4 February they’re putting on a mini festival of dance featuring 3 nights of mixed bill performances by lots of different companies and two days of FREE taster classes and workshops for those who fancy having a go at breaking, tapping, flamenco, contemporary, tae-kwon-do and ballet. The evening performance on Friday looks especially tasty to me including a cutting edge contemporary duet from Random Dance (under the directorship of the truly funky and wonderful Wayne McGregor), tap, hip-hop and, to end, the mesmerising “Swamp”, created by Michael Clark and performed by Rambert Dance Company. This piece alone is worth the meagre £10 ticket tag (£5 for a proms ticket if you’re willing to stand). Workshop places are only available to those who’ve bought an evening ticket so get booking now as places are limited.

3. And remember, Resolution! is on at The Place, Euston between 5-31 January. You never know what might happen. Full listings here.

See you there!