So, why are some things in the Festival and some in the Fringe? This was asked of me by an interested ‘non-artist’ friend visiting Brighton in the hectic month of May. Once, the answer would have been straightforward: the Brighton Festival is curated, and artists are invited to take part and paid a performance and/or […]

I first saw Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof in the early 1980s, and, thirty years later, sat in the midst of an excited audience, here I am again to see a restaging of her 2001 work Agua. Spanning completely the rear of the stage there’s luscious verdant green projections of palm tree fronds rippling in sultry breezes. A couple are […]

A small pontoon stage floats on the water of St. Peter’s Basin in Salford Quays. It has its own window box of reeds. Small floating bundles of red twigs mark out a performing area in the water. The audience looks down on this scene – in the background trams pass by and customers park cars […]

A game show that descends from a quest for the glittering prizes to an inhumane and degrading spectacle; some perverse partner dancing that ricochets from a twisted Tango to a slewed Swing; a surreal ballet with a mirror; a manic tug-of-war; a camp-fire tribal striptease; and a dreamy film landscape that suggests an Arcadia elsewhere… […]

We (Sue Auty and Edward Taylor) first met touring with Horse + Bamboo (from Lancashire) and Dogtroep (from Amsterdam) in 1981. The approach and attitude of Dogtroep inflamed our imaginations and we formed the Whalley Range All Stars in 1982 to realise ideas that we couldn’t do elsewhere. We didn’t want to be just like […]