A Dance of Two: Intimacy and Irony in Keegan-Dolan’s Latest Work

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By Anna M HOLMES

When we enter a theatre it is with expectations. Mine were informed by two previous works I have seen by this company in the past two years: Mám and Nobdodaddy. How To Be A Dancer In Seventy-Two Thousand Easy Lessons sits between these two pieces, in terms of when it was created, but this short run was its UK premiere.

When thinking of Keegan-Dolan’s work, it is of being overwhelmed by the combined power of movement and music exploding from the stage: free-flowing contemporary dance defying gravity; sound – contemporary and Irish-traditional – emanating from musicians. The whole mix and mash of them contributing to the jamboree. Mám and Nobdodaddy were presented at Sadler’s Wells. This production was at Sadler’s Wells East. It is a new, more intimate theatre, with seating for 570, but has a stage the same size as it’s Islington parent theatre. It can do ‘Big’ if it wants to, but How To Be A Dancer is intimate: a two-hander biographical piece.