Last weekend James & I dropped Georgie off at a friend’s house for the afternoon, and then headed into Birmingham city centre to take Lydia to go and see Diversity dancing their hearts out on their Supernova tour. We saw the show at The Alexandra theatre, which James & I haven’t been to since before lockdown so it was great to be back – especially since they refurbished it back in 2018 and it now has super comfy seats.
James & I have seen Diversity live a number of times, having been to a handful of their earlier tours, but this time we took our (not so!) little Lydia along with us for the first time. When the tickets were released, we showed the girls videos of their dancing on YouTube, and Lydia was really excited to come with us. It’s really nice to do things with just one of them at times so we were happy to buy her a ticket so we could have a fun afternoon together.
Lydia has actually had a dance lesson from Ashley Banjo, but she was so little she doesn’t really remember it – but she did ‘awww’ at the photos and have fun looking through them with me while we waited for the show to start.
The show itself was, in a single word, fantastic. Diversity are masterful storytellers, with the combination of dance, simple but effective props, technology, costumes, audio & visual effects, and of course music all coming together to tell the story of a boy with big dreams who loses his way. It was an emotional & nostalgic journey through his childhood memories and troubled present, with a truly moving ending – both James and I had to wipe our eyes as they were taking their bows.
The stage itself was deceptively simple looking, with two large screens and some raised platforms. However, during the show we were surprised by parts moving or opening up as they utilised their setup to it’s full potential, including a clever transparent screen that allowed the dancers to almost look like they were inside the videos being projected, or as if they had live special effects that would usually have to be done in a video post production.
I think that it is Diversity’s ability to tell a story through dance that is what draws us back to see them again & again, as they are utterly captivating as they convey different emotions and ideas through movement & music on stage. The choreography (by group founder Ashley Banjo) was just amazing – totally jaw dropping at times, and funny at others.
The whole audience were totally absorbed in the show, and the three of us really loved it. They have some guest dancers joining them, and the whole thing is a bit of a weird but wonderful mixture of dance & music styles backed up with wonderfully shot video clips and even some live spoken poetry type narration from Dujon Thompson.
Even if you aren’t a massive fan of dance but have enjoyed Diversity’s performances on BGT and so on, I really recommend going along to see one of their shows. It’s truly not just a dance performance, but is in fact a totally heartwarming – and heartbreaking – story… that happens to be told using dance as the main medium.
Check out the official tour trailer
Diversity will be journeying around the UK with the second leg of the Supernova tour from the end of January 2024 until April, so there are plenty of chances to go and see it for yourself.
Visit the TicketMaster site to book tickets for the Supernova tour here.
