AMATEUR DANCE REVIEW - Destination Dance - The Forum Theatre, Romiley. Stockport.

This evening I found myself at Romiley. This village near Stockport in Greater Manchester is home to The Forum Theatre, a large performance space and home of NK Theatre Arts. However, it was not NKTA that I had come to see this evening, but Stockport-based dance company, Debut Studios. 

I have been following Debut's students and their annual showcases for some years now, and they are one of the most professional schools around, turning out talented dancers by the bucketload! This evening was no exception either, as this year's show took us on a whirlwind flight to destinations across the world.

We opened with the air hostesses and passengers (including a hen party) sing, dance and celebrate as their board the 'Fabulous' plane. We then travel to France, Austria, Spain, Egypt, Central Africa, The Far East, Brazil, New York, Ireland, and of course our final destination is back home in good ol' England.

The dancers, all in their different groups and classes, based on age, ability, and style of dance, took us through routines with a flavour of the above countries in street dance, hip hop, commercial, contemporary, ballet, and goodness knows what else! Most of the students would be young teenagers and late tweens, but there were some even younger and a few older teens too. There were far too many dances / items in the concert for me to mention them all - and without a programme giving the titles of each dance (or indeed the age and dance style of each group), I was at a loss.

Therefore, being completely subjective for this paragraph, here are the numbers in this evening's concert which I enjoyed the most! First, the young girl who sang 'Lonely Goatherd' from 'The Sound Of Music'. (delightful); a Spanish-influenced fan dance; a contemporary routine for Egypt with tambourines; 'Walk Like An Egyptian', 'The Lion King' sequence; 'Johnny B. Good / Tooty Fruity' sequence; the older girls' Irish tap routine.

For the vast majority of the dances, the choreography was both exciting and interesting; in keeping with the theme and style, and with good use of stage space and pictures. Some had some lovely lifts, others good floor work. I would have liked to have seen more lifts, and perhaps a little more diverse a range of dance styles, but that is a persona opinion. For the ballet items, especially when wearing pointe shoes, the dancers were extremely heavy on their feet. I KNOW this is a very difficult thing, and they are still learning, but the idea of ballet is grace, form, beauty and elegance; and when we hear clodding footfalls each time, it rather ruins the illusion. But it was not just the ballet items though; this was also evidenced in other routines too. Surprisingly, a young boy (appearing in several of the numbers) was actually extremely light on his feet every time he did a leap! Well done!

However, the biggest faux-pas of the evening was not the dancers, it was not even on stage.. instead it was the audience! Sadly, the etiquette of being a theatregoer is not just on the decline, but has hit an all-time low! I have no idea how many times members of the audience got up from their seats, annoyed those nearby by moving out, leaving the auditorium and then coming back a little later, again disturbing everyone around them! Many of the proud parents were videoing or photographing their children in the routines throughout! And the amount of eating and drinking that went on was just unbelievable! If you cannot sit in silence and do without food or drink for an hour, then I truly feel sorry for you.. but stay away from the theatre! And since we were one of the last people to leave the auditorium, I was absolutely disgusted at the amount of detritus left behind. Popcorn, chocolate, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, bottles, glasses etc - all over the seats and the floor! Disgusting! 

Congratulations to all the dancers (and singers) this evening; it was a most enjoyable showcase (as always!), and your talent, commitment, dedication, skill, and love of what you were doing did not go unnoticed or unappreciated. 

Cheers!

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 30.6.23