Dance Derby @ Paterson's Land

This dance/jazz/theatre show is both an enjoyable and uncomfortable experience, as it explores how far we are willing to go.

Based on the American dance marathon competitions held in the 1930s during the Depression, dancing for up to 6 weeks, with only 10 minutes' break every two hours, the parallel with modern life is obvious: both in what the competitors were prepared to undergo (some were starving, homeless and desperate) and exploitation for sponsor money and the audience's voyeuristic, sadistic pleasure.

Terrific dance routines inspired by Lindy Hop and other popular dances of the day are melded with contemporary dance, as the dancers segue from one style to the other, excitingly choreographed by Kally Lloyd-Jones to a smashing live six-piece jazz band (led by Kennedy Aitchison), the star of the show throughout. All your favourite songs from that era are sung by soprano Nadine Livingston, who despite being an award-winning opera singer, does not dazzle. Understated, mainly grey and beige period costumes by Janis Hart perfectly conjure up these sad characters' desperate lives and the glitter ball reflections and silver bunting in an otherwise minimalist setting are particularly effective in creating bitter-sweet glamour. The air-raid warning siren to begin and end sessions was stunning, itself a symbolic comment. There are some touching dance duets when each couple is brought forward by the MC (played as a bully with hard-bitten, false bonhomie by Harry Ward) to milk the pathos of their suffering. But as the company re-creates the cruel ordeal and the dancers drag themselves around the stage, it is a bit of an endurance test for the audience too. However, the show rises to a moving tragic climax and and the broken dancer forced to sing at the end, performed by Steinvor Palsson, is heart-breaking.