1/2 In honour of the birth of Maurice Ravel, 8 March 1875, I am reposting two Ravel texts that I was DELIGHTED to have been able to write. The first on his two operas, the second on his particular genius, imo. www.theguardian.com/music/2012/a...

This was a bracing and heartening evening for me, marking 25th anniversary of the indomitable Ballet Black. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/m...

Interviews with people who discovered dance classes and performing after retiring from work - how, why and where it has taken them (it transforms lives). Plus, The Science from "Art Cure" author Prof Daisy Fancourt. I hope this speaks to many people. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/m...

Under water, in denial: is Europe drowning out the climate crisis?

‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics

I was weirded out. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/f...

Last day for Springback Academy applications! Apply for our annual mentored dance writing programme for people resident in Europe (EU and non-EU), taking place at Aerowaves’ Spring Forward festival, this year in Portugal. Details: springback.org/news/springb...

Shoutout to my sister (+ fellow Guardian writer) and all at Transition Town Wellington for winning the first RHS sustainable gardening award. They started from 0 five years ago. Huge achievement, transformation of the local environment, and a real inspiration! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes is touring and at Sadler's Wells in December, so am reposting this article from 2021 on cinema and dance and dance and Bourne.... enjoy. sanjoyroy.net/2021/02/medi...

Springback Assembly @ Lyon Dance Biennale, mainly its new Forum: dialogues beyond Europe partic with Indigenous peoples (AUS, BR, MZ, TW, USA). Written outcomes in wide range of voices: lyrical, analytical, critical, personal, even fictional. springback.org/assembly/2025

Courtney May Robertson has been great in own and Jan Martens’ work but HUNTER at Southbank was disappointing - esp as its themes (horror, doppelgänger) push my buttons. But felt like lots of effects, not much substance. Sorry!

Just delighted about Mamdani’s win. Anxious about how things will play out but let that not spoil today in any way. Today is for breathing fresh air and seeing a horizon of possibility. (See also: Zack Polanski). Usually I avoid posting politics on antisocial media, but this was too good.

My biggest 2025 project has been quietly soft-launched, namely: ex-springbackmagazine.com is now springback.org - showing not just the magazine but the Springback project's range of activities. I did the entire site design, rebuild + content transfer (900+page) myself. Massive learning curve!)

Open call for Springback Academy, our annual intensive workshop for up and coming dance writers based in Europe, is OPEN. Apply by 30 November 2025. Details here: springback.org/news/springb...

Rinse by Amrita Hepi & Mish Grigor was fresh, funny, far-reaching AND thought-provoking. Recommend! It’s on at Nottdance on 18 Oct and Transform Leeds, 21 Oct.

Well this was a fascinating and somewhat hopeful listen, especially on the day that Badenoch again gets it wrong about cheap vs clean energies.

Looking back at the Lyon Biennale de Danse 2025 www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/o...

Here’s me on returning to classes at The Place London, only about 40 yrs after I first went to the evening school there. www.instagram.com/reel/DO_ZdLs...

Like many others, I had lots of mixed feelings about Jonathan Watkins’ A Single Man. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...

East is East, West is West? The question runs through Europe too. Here is the third in the Critical Distance series, copublished with @mobiustheatre.bsky.social , and Springback Magazine writers. 👇🏽

On cultural performance and natural death. Circumstances meant I had to write in a different and much more personal way than usual. Dedicated to Hilary Ann Roy (1940-2025). springbackmagazine.com/springback-a...

Usually write on dance but am fan of #MauriceRavel. On 150th anniversary of his birth am reposting 2 texts I was superproud to have written. 1)on "small is beautiful" idea of exquisitely composed pieces that are bigger on the inside than on the outside. www.theguardian.com/music/musicb... 1/2

A video interview I did with Sadler’s Wells director Alistair Spalding about their buildings, part of the Places for Dance series at French CND Magazine. (In English! with French subtitles) magazine.cnd.fr/fr/posts/166...

The "ripple-effect" of a life's work in dance: on the living legacy of Trisha Brown. Was wonderful to speak with Carolyn Lucas of Trisha Brown Dance Company about past, present and future of Brown's choreographic legacy. magazine.cnd.fr/en/posts/159...

First Rose choreography award (£40,000)goes to Christos Papadopoulos. First Bloom choreography award (£15,000) to Stav Boutros. @sadlerswells.bsky.social

Mysteries, the unknown, death, extinction. I was REALLY privileged to be able to talk with Simon McBurney & Crystal Pite about the Complicité/Nederlands Dans Theater Figures in Extinction trilogy. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/f...

Dimanche @mimelondon.bsky.social is funny, clever, disarming and devastating - holding a mirror to our dithering, carry-on-as-normal attitude while climactic climatic catastrophes overtake us all around.

A real highlight of my year (2024) was being haunted by three deep & dark puppet theatre shows by Yngvild Aspeli of Plexus Polaire. Catch their Moby Dick 22-25 Jan @mimelondon.bsky.social Here we talk puppetry, life/death, hunting and of course haunting…

The original “name above the title” was film director Frank Capra, who got higher billing than the film itself. In dance, Matthew Bourne has name-above-title status and this is the work that did most to make that happen. www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/d...

RIP Caroline Miller. Such a shock and a loss. A real (and very human) force of life in the dance world, warmly regarded by so many. Also very funny! Was (among other things) press officer at Southbank Centre and Sadler’s Wells, director of Dance UK, and most recently CEO of Birmingham Royal Ballet

Here’s a short piece I wrote after being pushed off the railway onto the runway by (the irony is lost on no one) by consequences of climate breakdown. springbackmagazine.com/supplement/a...

Guy Maddin has a new film out!! ¡¡ 🤩😍🤩 !! Rumours, UK release date: 6 Dec 24. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tkT...

Small show, big world. I liked this a lot. I've done a lot of dance reviewing but almost no "theatre" - and I wonder how that affects my ways of processing and writing. I will be interested to read theatre reviewers on the same show…

Talking to Michael Keegan-Dolan of Teaċ Daṁsa, about Irishness and openness and Nobodaddy [which plays London's Sadler's Wells next week, 27-30 Nov 2024]

First post on Bluesky! It’s all about the double meaning of “gag” (wish I’d thought of that line when I was writing late last night!) www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/n...