A few weeks ago, I was asked if Matt and me wanted to go and see Stomp perform in Oxford. I’d never seen them before but had heard it was a very good show, so I agreed. The tickets came the week before, then last Saturday we went to go and watch it! My dad drove us there and for some incredibly daft reason he decided to park done some quiet little side street that was possibly the furthest point away from the city centre as possible.. apparently we needed the exercise Not fun walking such a distance in heels I can tell you!!

We eventually got there and went straight in. We hadn’t realised how high up our seats were! Bit of a bugger really as throughout the whole of the show, everyone on the upper level where we were, were all perched forward on the edge of their seats trying to get a better look as they person in front of them was blocking their view from doing the same thing!

Anyway, Stomp was absolutely fantastic!! I loved it from start to finish! It was about 8 people all stomping ( ) around the stage, using anything from brooms, to bits of rubbish and kitchen sinks to bins to make sounds from! It was truely amazing! It wasn’t just about them making sounds out of things, there was a comedy side to it too. None of them spoke, but used actions and gestures towards to audience and the people they were performing with. The main theme of it being this big built dominant guy picking on this weedy little guy, it being funny by the way they were reacting to each other. They would interrupt each others little performances which would just make everyone laugh, and see who was better at interacting with the audience It’s kind of hard to explain, you’d really need to see it to understand

STOMP has no words - everyone can understand it. It has little or no melody in the traditional sense, so it doesn’t matter if your taste in music is jazz, classical, dance or pop. STOMP is about rhythm, which is common to all cultures. Everyone knows rhythm, if only from the beating of their own heart - it is the basis of all music.

STOMP is about a group of people, with very strong personalities, who work together using simple building blocks to create something complex , something everyone can identify with: everyone has, at some time, to engage in group activity, whether they like or know the people they are working with or not. It’s the little idiosyncrasies, the differences between people, and the games of one-upmanship that ensue, which define the group dynamic.

There are several Stomp companies currently performing around the world: up to three working from the UK and three in North America. Each company has its own style, its own feel: this is because even though the show is very tightly choreographed and orchestrated, there is a lot of room for every performer’s own personality to shine through. The show is as much an expression of eight individuals with very strong personalities as it is a vision of rhythm.

http://www.stomp.co.uk/

It really was the best thing I’ve seen in a while, and I’d recommend it to any one!