The world’s most acerbic dance commentary
In a spectacular display of ignorance Arts Council England’s, so-called, “Dance Mapping Study” has come to the conclusion the rest of the dance world came to 25 years ago that dancers don’t get paid enough. We should either celebrate that the funding monolith showed up to the party at all or march en-masse to their […]
As a form of communication text messaging has its uses, not very many for sure but it definitely has some practical purpose. Here in TheLab™ we’re struggling to think of one but there has to be one, right? In many ways text messages have become a metaphor for large parts of the internet. Keep it […]
The Scottish Government, when it’s not spending huge sums of money on really ugly buildings for itself, can also be found spending huge sums of money (£343,000 to be exact) on really bad dance projects. ‘Off Kilter’ a co-production of works about tartan, haggis and short bread (probably) are being created by Janet Smith from […]
The sheer volume of insufferable cretins in the dance-world that occupy the higher echelons, self imposed or otherwise, of this particular art form can be readily identified by their use of one single word, that word is “troupe”. Everybody’s favourite, albeit usually inaccurate but what the hell, online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, doesn’t even lower itself to […]
It’s no secret that here in TheLab™ we have very little time for the current AD of Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, Alistair Spadling. If he’s not mouthing off some inscrutable crap about women he’s programming some of the most populist, conformist dance makers in Christendom for his venue. Mr Spalding has reached a new […]
John Ashford, out going AD of The Place in London, has taken a parting shot at pretty much everything before he moves on to pastures new in Europe, where the grass is always, always, greener. In an interview with Time Out magazine (which Mr Ashford worked for many years ago) he berates British dance for […]
On may 11th Alistair Spalding the AD of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, quoted in the Guardian newspaper, uttered a couple of sentences that have, over the last few weeks, exposed just how inept large scale arts organisations are at answering simple questions. From a journalistic perspective it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Nothing is more […]
Browsing around the performing arts podcast section on iTunes we, here in TheLab™, were surprised to see a new entry from those crazy kids at the Royal Opera House in London. The podcast covers the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet with both video and audio segments on offer. Since Opera is the most ridiculous […]
Belgium is home to some of the most hard core creatives in the dance world and now they’re taking it to the people with the project below that had 200 participants dancing a very tightly choreographed piece of work in the middle of an active train station in Antwerp. You will notice the complete lack […]
Arts Council England (ACE) continue their “good christ how bad a week are we having?” with the announcement of a £40Million (GBP) fund to help certain companies in the arts that may or may not be struggling during the current economic bun fight. Astute readers may have noticed the story earlier this week that mentioned […]