Reviews Introduction

February 2023

Hi! It’s been a while.

I’d thought I’d reintroduce myself and my plans for this website this year. I’m Leia, dance graduate from the University of Winchester. I was the first physically disabled student on my course, according to my lecturer, and I achieved a 2:1 in 2019. Since then the world exploded and we’re beginning to find our feet again. During 2020, I started this website as a creative outlet to talk about my experiences in dance and I’ve been very grateful to have been interviewed about it a few times, once for the University of Winchester Alumni page, once with Movement Momentum and once for a dissertation. Never in a million years did I think that would happen. I’ve also posted essays on TV shows and some fiction work. But there never seemed a vision of where this website would go.

One of my goals for this year is to see dance works regularly. The goal sort of came out of nowhere but it seems like a good resolution to me. I plan on writing about them and posting those reviews here. I’ve already seen two productions of Nutcracker (Matthew Bourne and Royal Ballet); admittedly that was the end of last year; Like Water for Chocolate (Royal Ballet) and Unknown Realms (ACE Dance and Music). I want to post the reviews once a month or perhaps more regularly as I get myself going. I’m hoping to post in chronological order but I don’t know if you’d appreciate two Nutcracker reviews in a row.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see dance at my local venue, Newbury Corn Exchange, either live – Unknown Realms – or through a cinema encore/recording – both Nutcrackers and Like Water for Chocolate. Please note that not every performance I write about will be live as I want to show how accessible dance can be, this might include reviews from streaming services like ROH Streaming and Marquee TV.

I hope you’re as excited as I am for this journey and follow me along for it.

Leia