Dance In The Dark

Dance In The Dark is an immersive, interactive dance and music show for 3-6 year olds and their grown-ups.

As darkness descends, lets giggle as we get ready for bed, play in the spooky shadows, listen to night-time sounds, and feel the blustery wind and drizzly rain on our faces in the storm. We’ll meet friendly nocturnal creatures… some slithering slugs, most magical moths, and fantastical fireflies. Discover the magic of the dark as we whirl and twirl, catch a shooting star and learn how to be brave at bedtime.

I created the sound design for this immersive show that is set in a children’s homemade den where the audience are invited to join the cast of two sisters and their father at a sleepover. The narrative introduces a bedtime story with nocturnal creatures and leads to the characters hearing strange noises around the house, footsteps of their approaching father and an imaginary adventure into the forest where the sisters encounter a thunder storm and meet a host of nocturnal animals such as moths, owls, frogs, foxes and a hedgehog.

I designed a surround sound system which allowed me to create immersive soundscapes that reflected the magic realism of the children’s imaginary adventure. The approaching father’s footsteps circled aorund the den, thunder and lightening cracked and boomed from above while rain and wind were heard all around and the sound of nocturnal animals echoed through the forest and fluttered and rustled past the audience.

Dance in the Dark was funded by Arts Council England, Leamington Town Council, Heart of England Community Foundation, The Higgs Trust and Warwick District Council.

The premiere was at Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham 15 February 2025 followed by UK touring including: Warwick Arts Centre and the Albany Theatre, Coventry; The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury; Barnsley Civic; Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury.