Boys Don’t Dance
★★★★★ Breathtaking
Assembly @ Dance Base (Venue 22a): Fri 7- Sun 23 Aug 2026
Review by Ed Boulter-Comer.
Director/Choreographer Marc Brew’s breathtaking coming of age story Boy’s Don’t Dance at Assembly @ Dance Base is anti-venom for toxic masculinity, tracking the early life of a boy as he develops his sense of self alongside his love of dance.
Commissioned by Edinburgh International Children’s Festival as part of an increased focus on disabled-led work, it is danced by performers with and without disabilities. It is a highly polished gem of a work.
Ross Malloy in Boys Don’t Dance. Pic: Brian Hartley.
Growing up in a sanitised and safe-feeling rural Australia, Ross Malloy’s Performer (young boy) is influenced by his diet of 80s pop hits. He mimics the choreography, outshining Footloose’s Kevin Bacon, as we compare the two side by side on stage and on the screen integrated into Rachel O’Neill’s versatile, ramped set.
Composer Azariah Felton’s excellent score becomes a springboard for Malloy’s exuberant, joyful style. He explores the sense of freedom the character gets, whether that is from his mother’s gaudy clothes or the free-wheeling speed of his BMX.
The plot mirrors Brew’s own life story, with an accident leaving Performer (young boy) to become Performer (older boy) presented by Piotr Iwanicki, who uses a wheelchair to dance the role.
exhilarating
Iwanicki makes his Performer (older boy) athletic and graceful. His sense of wonder at his arrival in the “big city” is palpable and he utilises a dance vocabulary simply unavailable to performers who do not use wheels. The tightest of pirouettes combine with wheelies and ramp-work that would not be out of place in extreme sports programming. He is exhilarating to watch.
In a nod to ballet purists, Brew has both dancers appear at a stylised barre early on, running through their arm warmups. It simultaneously flashes the production’s dance credentials, whilst giving a hint not to expect a run of the mill dance piece.
Ross Malloy in Boys Don’t Dance. Pic: Brian Hartley
There is nothing run of the mill about the duets. They are where the piece explodes creatively and the combination of dance, BMX and chair tricks that leaves you gasping as if you were at a circus. The crash duet is at once heart-breaking and narratively satisfying, acting as the transition from one performer to another.
The Marc Brew Company doesn’t just take inclusion seriously, it places it at the root of the production. There is a careful and light-hearted prologue, taking the audience through the parameters of the show, including a witty and fully integrated BSL performance. This is gold dust for neurodiverse audience members, as well as children.
object lesson
The killer blow here is that it also makes the piece accessible for those who don’t “speak” the language of dance. It is an object lesson in Diversity, Inclusion and Equity making life better for all.
This is a piece about the courage to be the type of man you really are. It is a firm and optimistic rejection of the conformity so many of our young men are faced with when they open their phones.
Take your children. Take the men in your lives. They will be spell-bound.
Running time: 1 hour (no interval).
Assembly @ Dance Base (DB1), 14-16 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU (Venue 22a).
Friday 7 – Sunday 23 August 2026.
Daily (not 10, 17): 1.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Marc Brew’s website: marcbrew.com
Facebook: @marcbrewcompany
Instagram: @marcbrewcompany
Piotr Iwanicki in Boys Don’t Dance. Pic: Brian Hartley.
ENDS
