ETM: Double Down by Dorrance Dance, currently at Sadler’s Wells, is jaw-droppingly brilliant. Quite literally – at times I was sitting open-mouthed and at risk of drooling. It is the most brilliant creative thing I’ve seen in a long time. And I’ve seen quite a few brilliant things already this year. Although described as “masters of tap”, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers they ain’t. It’s very difficult to find words to describe the performance but it’s a sort of tap meets hip-hop meets Tom Hanks playing floor piano in Big meets Vangelis meets Stomp meets the Kodo Drummers. And that in no way does it justice. With smoke, sampling machines, a Mo Farah look-alike bass player, the haunting voice of Aaron Marcellus, the amazing twisting rhythmic Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie (described in the programme as a New York City based b-girl: I have no idea what that means) spinning, twitching, tapping, body-slapping, clicking, percussion-playing dancers who looked at times as though a 10,000 volt electric shock had been delivered to their bodies yet who remained in supreme control, high octane-fuelled ultra energetic yet haunting; it most certainly got rhythm. Just go see it for yourself.

http://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2017/dorrance-dance-etm-double-down/

(Photos by Christopher Duggan, Matthew Murphy and Hayim Heron and taken from the programme)