SOUTHPAW Dance Co., which is based in Newcastle, having just returned from Germany, began their tour of Cornwall by performing ‘Icarus’ in front of a large audience on Bude Castle’s lawn last Thursday afternoon, August 15, writes Christine Williams.

Choreographed by Bobby Graham, six world class dancers presented an interpretation of the classical Greek myth about a boy who flew too close to the heat of the sun.

With a powerful rhythmic percussion accompaniment the dancers performed acrobatically, at times combining the physicality of hip-hop with more poetic movement to the climax when Icarus spreads his wings, rises to face the sun and is then swallowed by clouds of smoke.

The audience, which included many young children, applauded at appropriate moments to show their appreciation and after the show were given a chance to meet the choreographer and dancers and be photographed with Icarus and his gigantic wings.