A dance theatre production blending spoken word, comedy and dance is coming to Sadler’s Wells East for the first time, with Michael Keegan-Dolan and his company Teaċ Daṁsa performing the UK premiere of How to be a Dancer in Seventy-two Thousand Easy Lessons this September.
The show explores nationality, identity, xenophobia, ancestor worship, shame, death, defiance, love and dance, with Keegan-Dolan invoking stories from his own personal history as well as those of the world around him.
Created during the Covid lockdown in 2020, it is written, choreographed and danced by Keegan-Dolan, in partnership with director Rachel Poirier (who also performs) and lighting designer Adam Silverman.
How to be a Dancer marks Keegan-Dolan and Teaċ Daṁsa’s comeback following Nobodaddy (Tríd an bpoll gan bun), which is described as an inventive take on a William Blake poem created from the company’s home of Gaeltacht, in Ireland’s West Kerry, which visited Sadler’s Wells Theatre last November.
A coproduction with the Gate Theatre, it premiered at the 2022 Dublin Theatre Festival and has since performed at The Galway International Arts Festival; St Ann’s Warehouse, New York; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; The Everyman Theatre, Cork as part of the SFSH Festival; The Pavillion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire; the Cervantino Festival, Mexico; Teatros del Canal in Madrid; Féile na Bealtaine Arts Festival, Dingle and at Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, County Kerry.
How to be a Dancer in Seventy-two Thousand Easy Lessons plays at Sadler’s Wells East from Wednesday, September 17 – Saturday, September 20. Tickets here.
Top image: Photo: Fiona Morgan (image supplied)