Take a mixed bag of women, add a man and you get the ingredients for a play. Add what goes on in people’s lives behind the facade that everyone portrays and you have a plot. If the setting is unusual then you have the basis for a first rate story. This is what happened when Richard Harris put this mix together in a church hall and made them dance.

Not a musical, but a musical play. Mavis (Sue Devaney) takes a dance class in a church hall in Leeds in 1983 which attracts all sorts of people with all sorts of abilities. Dorothy (Michelle Abrahams) enthusiastic, Sylvia (Catherine Breeze) disillusioned with marriage, Vera (Helen Hobson) with grand illusions of herself, Maxine (Kathryn Hunt) always looking for a sale, Andy (Annette McLaughlin) shy and lonely, Lynne (Sarah Miller) searching, Rose (Yvonne Newman) disillusioned and Geoffrey (Phil Nice) wanting company, all interact and eventually become a whole when they are asked to perform at a local charity performance. Add the piano player Mrs Fraser (Elizabeth Power) a cantankerous old woman and you have all you need for a great play.

The journey to fulfilment is eventful and emotional. The eventual performance is something worth waiting for. The dancing is great and the spectacle something else. A great night out for all and for those with some knowledge of dance who appreciate the way the performance is arrived at. It takes a lot of time and effort to bring so many different abilities together to make a pleasing whole, but it’s done here both in the play and by the cast. Enjoyable. © BA

“Stepping Out” is in Leeds from the 27 June to the 21 July, 2001.