Michael Keegan-Dolan/Teac Damsa Review

"How to Be a Dancer in Seventy-Two Thousand Easy Lessons, to give it its proper title, is typical of the Irish dance/theatre maker Michael Keegan-Dolan a seemingly anarchic, yet tightly structured piece, that draws heavily from Irish culture and keeps the audience interested in the ins and outs of a tale mixing the absurd with the all too mundane, laughter with the odd touch of pathos, eclectic music with outlandish props."

"Dance proper it isn't; though, in a first-person narrative by Keegan-Dolan himself, it takes us through his frustrated attempts to become a classical ballet dancer. In fact, like so much of the work by this maverick some would say visionary artist, it's its own thing, impossible to pigeonhole. How to be a Dancer, though, is narrower in scope and ambition than pieces brought by his company Teac Damsa to Sadler's Wells over the past decade or so."

"Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, for example, which premiered in 2016, was a wide-ranging, hard-hitting loose reworking of the popular classical ballet, which blended Irish mythology with the grunge of down-at-heel modern day Ireland. It involved a cast of 13 performers and a live band. More recently in the autumn of 2024 Sadler's Wells hosted his Noboddady, a piece named after a malevolent character created by the poet William Blake, which was, nevertheless, presented as a celebration of life and an ode to peacemakers."

How to Be a Dancer in Seventy-Two Thousand Easy Lessons is an Irish dance-theatre piece that mixes absurdity, everyday life, humour and occasional pathos within a tightly structured, anarchic frame. The performance uses eclectic music, outlandish props and autobiographical first-person narration detailing frustrated attempts to become a classical ballet dancer. The staging at Sadler's Wells East presents a stripped-back two-hander featuring Michael Keegan-Dolan and Rachel Poirier, whose presence anchors the piece. The work sits in contrast to Teac Damsa's larger productions like Swan Lake/Loch na hEala and Noboddady, which used bigger casts and live bands. Gentle birdsong greets the audience on arrival.

Read at www.london-unattached.com