Stage: Dance your life away

Teaċ Daṁsa
How to Be a Dancer in Seventy-two Thousand Easy Lessons
by Michael Keegan-Dolan
choreography and performance Michael Keegan-Dolan, Rachel Poirier
directors Rachel Poirier and Adam Silverman
set and costumes Hyemi Shin
lighting Adam Silverman • sound Sandra Ní Mathúna
Sadler's Wells East, Stratford • 17-20.Sep.25 ★★★

Blending his personal experiences into a lively performance art piece, Michael Keegan-Dolan takes the stage with long-time collaborator Rachel Poirer to explore the journey of his life through spoken word, dance and physical theatre. It's a fascinating show, largely because it's impossible to predict what might happen next. But it's also oddly indulgent, expressing ideas and narrating events in ways that keep the audience on the outside looking in. And for a show that explores ambition, identity and ancestry, it never quite cuts loose into something truly soul-baring.

Keegan-Dolan and Poirer immediately get to business unpacking a large wooden crate to place props around the stage for use later. For much of this 80-minute show, Keegan-Dolan recounts stories from his life while Poirer offers little asides, sounds and visual touches. There are also extended dance sequences and larger eye-catching moments involving ladders, lights, breeze-blocks, a disco ball, an egg and microphones on long cables. This show is constantly in motion, with a cheeky sense of humour that reflects in the performers' evident glee, especially in the sillier moments.

The story traces Keegan-Dolan from his childhood in Ireland to studying ballet in London and working as a choreographer across Europe, seen through the prism of his nationality as he stands up to authorities at every step (echoing his recent fallout with Sadler's Wells). Anecdotes chronicle moments of both embarrassment and tenacity, played out on-stage with honest wit and inventively visual flourishes. The choreography is impressively precise, even when things get messy. And Poirer's show-stopping dance numbers include a goofy cross-dressing sequence and a remarkable marathon solo to Bolero.

An eclectic mix of music spans from Ravel and Elgar to Talking Heads, Queen and Men Without Hats. Themes are also wide-ranging, touching repeatedly on art, religion and racism, with some vague nods to sexuality along the way. Most enjoyable is the lively storytelling, recounting youthful aspirations as they clash with reality. These are funny and telling, and offer brief moments of resonance along the way. Most sequences feel rather random, but the general sense of absurdity is lovely. As is the idea that life is short, so while I'm alive I will dance.

For info, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Fiona Morgan • 17.Sep.25