Photo: Hugo Glendenning When Matthew Bourne first premiered his ground-breaking Swan Lake, there were walkouts and little girls crying. Where were the girls in tutus? Why was there a gay storyline? Where were Odile and Odette? Pearls were clutched. It’s thirty years later, and happily Bourne’s iconoclastic and singular vision has not only endured, butContinue reading “Thirty Swans A- Dancing”
Category Archives: Dance
TV Review: Girlbands Forever
Following on from last year’s Boybands Forever documentary, produced by Louis Theroux and Nancy Strang, comes the sister companion Girlbands Forever. And it’s equally as fascinating, yet pretty flawed. Suga(babes) and Spice (Girls) is all very nice, but of course, as with the previous three part series, the reality was anything but. As before, ex-bandContinue reading “TV Review: Girlbands Forever”
Album Review: Haai- Humanise
The second album from London based electronic artist Teneil Throssell, aka HAAi, is absolutely sublime. Continuing with the gorgeous experimentation from debut Baby I’m Ascending, Humanise features friends like Jon Hopkins, Obi Franky, ILA and TRANS VOICES on the majestic ‘Satellite’. Elsewhere, we find Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor on ‘New Euphoria’ and Kam-Bu on ‘Shapeshift’.Continue reading “Album Review: Haai- Humanise”
Album Review: Rival Consoles- Landscape From Memory
What a beauty. The gorgeous, endlessly inventive new album, from Rival Consoles, aka Ryan Lee West, invokes a kind of synaesthesia: you can almost hear colours. It’s textured, layer upon layer, like a kind of complex tromp l’oeil painting in sound. Tracks like ‘Catherine’, ‘Known Shapes’ and the stunning, shimmering ‘Soft Gradient Beckons’ appear likeContinue reading “Album Review: Rival Consoles- Landscape From Memory”
Freelancer’s Blues
It isn’t easy being a freelance arts writer. While I’m fully aware there are worse jobs to have (I previously worked in a call centre, a hotel and in retail, uggghhh) there are a few issues with this bizarre occupation. Firstly, some publications insist that they will pay you, only to renege at the lastContinue reading “Freelancer’s Blues”
Why Series 4 (2022) of Drag Race UK Is My Favourite
Not all drag queens are created alike. RuPaul’s Drag Race was in danger of becoming a little bit safe, until she (legendary queen RuPaul Charles) and the producers (World Of Wonder) sent it to the UK. No judgment, but to me, it felt like our American sisters on their shows were more about looks, glamourContinue reading “Why Series 4 (2022) of Drag Race UK Is My Favourite”
The Power of the Sad Banger
As Sophie Ellis-Bextor once observed, “It’s murder on the dancefloor”. But it’s sometimes fun to wallow in a little drama. This is where the sad banger comes in. It’s an anthem for the dumped, the disillusioned, or simply the thwarted romantic. Abba probably started it, these Eurovision winners with their Scandinavian melancholy in the verses,Continue reading “The Power of the Sad Banger”
Bill Bailey’s Kraftwerk Tribute
Since it’s the weekend,let’s get silly. Bill Bailey is one of my favourite ever comedians, a musical legend in his own right, and his tribute to Kraftwerk, one of his favourite bands of all time, takes a well known kids’ song out of context, and into his typically absurdist territory. “That’s what it’s all about”Continue reading “Bill Bailey’s Kraftwerk Tribute”
From The Skinny Archive… Matthew Bourne ‘s Swan Lake In 3D
★★★★★ Review by Missy Lorelei | 27 Jun 2012 This ravishing production from Sadler’s Wells in London is at once contemporary and utterly timeless. Bourne’s re-telling of the classic ballet has more than a slight Freudian overtone to the narrative; the adult Prince (touchingly portrayed by Dominic North) has mother issues; is seduced by aContinue reading “From The Skinny Archive… Matthew Bourne ‘s Swan Lake In 3D”
The Arts Are Not A Luxury
I grew up in a small working- class rural town in Perthshire, Scotland. Nothing much happened there; we didn’t have much money and TV was our only dose of culture. In my house, books were shoved into cupboards, hidden away like skeletons, and theatre, with the exception of am- dram panto, wasn’t “for the likesContinue reading “The Arts Are Not A Luxury”
Hit The North 