Boys Don’t Dance review – jump back to the 80s to celebrate the power of pop

Assembly @ Dance Base, Edinburgh A sunny mashup of music accompanies choreographer Marc Brew’s feelgood coming-of-age story Marc Brew made the acclaimed show An Accident/A Life in 2024, with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, about the car accident that left him paralysed below the waist aged 20. Brew went on to be a successful dancer and choreographer, performing using a wheelchair, and Brew’s latest piece returns to autobiographical territory. This time the focus is on the young Marc – or dancer Ross Malloy as a proxy – growing up in rural Australia, surrounded by football fans and sheep, and told repeatedly that boys don’t dance. What the show does really well is capture Malloy’s character’s absolute joy in dancing, how totally innate it is, the rhythm in his blood as he’s throwing himself into the routine from Footloose, or dancing along to a nostalgia-fest of songs and video clips from Culture Club, Wham! and cartoon pop star Jem, to the theme from Wonder Woman or jingles for Gillette. We get a sunny mix of disco, jazz, acro-moves and fizzing energy, with BMX tricks thrown in. It’s a reminder of the power of pop music, and also of the boredom and freedom of an 80s childhood. When his mum is out, Malloy dresses up in her clothes and performs, but this thing he desires is also torturing him, as does living in a place where he has to hide his true self...