THIS IS DANCE features new show blending truth, illusion, and reality
November sees an exciting series of new dance performances as part of THIS IS DANCE autumn season. Now in its second year, this ambitious partnership brings together venues, festivals, producers, and dance companies, to present performances by local, national, and international artists.
First up is Jo Bannon’s eye-opening performance The Dirty Work at the Hippodrome on 7 November. Through a series of subversive magic tricks, Bannon tackles the reality of living with a visual impairment and the unseen labour (or dirty work) that we all perform every day. Click below to book your tickets to this spellbinding show.
The rain is hammering down on my windscreen, and a terrible mist obscures the view in front of me. Squinting into the fog I scan for signs of movement, any rustling in the foliage or subtle outline of a figure passing. But it’s seven in the evening — and winter is almost here. I see nothing at all, no traces of life, only darkness, a thick sheet of black behind the goblets of rain on the window glass.
I have a mission this weekend: to track down a mythical creature that has inspired books and haunted the country folk of Staffordshire for more than half a century. Somewhere in the howling winds, I’m certain of a distant oink.
The Midlands is rife with folklore and mythical beings, nowhere more so than Cannock Chase, a vast and ancient landscape, spanning hunting forest appointed by William the Conqueror and Iron Age hill forts. Little wonder then, has it inspired storytellers across the ages; from the First Marquess of Anglesey, a phantom horseman who rides through the landscape with his pack of hounds, to the young girl with solid black eyes who stalks the forest. None of these tales grip me as much as the legend of the Pig Man.
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