

‘how did we get here?’ review
How do you pack a massive theatre for a resolutely niche contemporary dance piece? Try adding an icon of British pop music. Melanie Chisholm, aka Mec C, aka Sporty Spice, is the undoubted draw of ‘how did we get here?’. Always the Spice Girls’ strongest singer, she has already proved she has plenty more strings to her bow, publishing a bestselling autobiography and dabbling with musical theatre. Now, at the age of 49, she has returned to her dance roots, collaborating with fellow Merseysider Jules Cunningham, a veteran of the contemporary dance scene and a Sadler’s Wells New Wave associate. There is nowhere to hide in ‘how did we get here?’: the audience sits on three sides of the stage and in the front stalls for an in-the-round experience (be warned: you have to queue for the undesignated seats on a first-come, first-served basis). And the costumes, designed by Stevie Stewart, are basically sleeveless body stockings that look as though they have been sprayed on to Chisholm, Cunningham and third performer Harry Alexander. But, clearly relishing the challenge, Chisholm holds her own with these two talented and experienced dancers; she can hit a lovely ballet line, has impressive stamina and is an immensely watchable stage presence. Vague, rather angsty programme notes don’t really help you to mine any meaning from this hour-long piece. The movement at first is tentative, pensive and heavy with melancholy, set to Nina Simone as a glitterball casts fractured light across the t