The Shoogle Project

The rise of immersive performance feels like a desperate strategy by beleaguered artists: if the point can’t be made through a soliloquy or a pas de deux, maybe a dancer dragging the audience up for a boogie might help. Plan B, helmed by the redoubtable traditional Scottish dancer Frank McConnell, have teamed up with folk-rockers Shooglenifty to re-energise the ceilidh by marrying a live gig with performance dance in an enthusiastic, immersive ritual celebration

In under two hours, The Shoogle Project moves traditional dances onto the stage, using its patterns and tropes – including an impressive burst of Irish clogging – and pulls the crowd up there too. By the finale, when Shooglenifty have exploded into a disciplined rock out, the gap between contemporary choreography, country dancing and concert has been shattered: the audience and company are together on the dance-floor, finding their personal grooves together.

On the way, Plan B tell brief stories through formal set-pieces, interrupted by invited invasions from the crowd. McConnell himself essays a charming solo, while the company redesign the traditional ceilidh stagger into a series of forceful dances. Somewhere between an intelligent updating of an apparently marginalised tradition and a dynamic concert experience, The Shoogle Project is a satisfying meeting of mind and emotion that connects the Celtic to the contemporary. [Margaret Kirk]