Motionhouse: Hidden

Sadler’s Wells East, London
October 27, 2026

There is something so amazingly human and powerful in harnessing both muscle power and courage then daring to fly, to catch and to somersault. These are the core skills of Motionhouse’s dancers and co-founder/ director Kevin Finnan has woven them into Hidden, a performance that thrills and entertains while attempting to relate to current concerns.

Founded in 1988, together with Louise Richards, Motionhouse has developed a unique place in UK dance theatre. They have built an impressive creative team and importantly, also a forward looking, receptive agenda from offering placements to promising newcomers to giving free openair performances.

Entering the theatre, the air is already alive with sound, a heavy dull atmospheric boom. A screen across the front of the stage shows an urban sprawl of housing, filmed from above. A dancer rushes on, backgrounded by a busy pedestrian street, his stress visible in his face and movement. The action moves indoors to a cosy duo but we return to public spaces, a crowded tube train and crowded streets and briefly, a gentle solo in a leafy glade. The dance is fluid and athletic, also brilliantly rehearsed and delivered with full commitment. You don’t mark these moves.

Act One is the ‘descent into darkness’ with digital imagery from the Spanish team, Logela Multimedia, who make an effective shift from urban reality to dark shapes and patterns. A male duet incorporating a baton of light explores elements of light and dark. More of this combination of lighting and dance would have been welcome.

The action continues with two female dancers trapped in pockets of clingfilm. The visuals are intriguing but the storyline vague. One female escapes and rescues the second while the other five dancers remain little involved. The action; an amazing variety of circus skills continue on a versatile piece of scaffolding that shape sifted to suit.

Motionhouse have proved, in other productions, that they can handle narrative well but while the concept of a descent and then return to light has possibilities, they are not explored as fully as they might be. The first act seems over long because it lacks clear direction. The music conveys a sense of danger, and the dancers make constant appeals to the audience in gestures and facial expression but the reason why is hard to fathom.

The choreographic material by Finnan, developed with the dancers and associate director Daniel Massarella, is exciting and inventive; a combination of contemporary dance, notably in the opening scenes, with the addition of tumbling, handstands and circus skills. The second act, where the set comprises a steep, slanting wall, barely possible to climb, offers floor work at a 45-degree angle. The creative space the slope provides to explore dance adventures, is effectively used.

The dancers are truly amazing and a delight to watch and a stronger story line would have given the boost to make this another Motionhouse winner.