Kate Prince’s Into the Hoods introduced a young Liam Francis to gravity defying breakdance, and he developed an ardent desire to forge a career in dance. After that, he discovered Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest, then the legendary Faun by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Each of these discoveries was an aesthetic shock to the system that he knew had changed him for life. Yet he didn’t know that years later, he would perform these masterworks himself. Nor did he realise that he had the right to love Cunningham as much as hip-hop and that his skin colour did not predetermine his style of dance. By reactivating the essence of these works in his piece Lyre Liar, he invites us on a journey to the source of his creative style. A danced portrait, illuminated by a text cowritten with Ben Duke, and funny too, what more could we ask?

Thomas Hahn