Teenage Kicks - Again? ....

In fact, teenagers are quite fun. Diary was basically a study on love - adolescent love; and it was suitably fast, furious, complicated and bursting with a young reckless physicality that really reminded me of being a teenager and feeling invincible. It was also in short snappy bursts of tight, fast dance followed by set pieces of witty banter from the dancers (most unusual, I didn't realise that dancers were allowed to be heard as well as seen). There was also a bit of video projection and technical wizadry thrown in for good measure - all these elements no doubt contributed to the appeal for the two-minute attention-span generation.

As well as the snappiness of the piece, one of the best things about it was its strong overtone of humour - the dialogues were particularly amusing and it was actually quite a relief to see something light-hearted and fun; something that didn't take itself too seriously and wasn't massively intense - which a lot of adult dance can be.

In the post-show talk, Artistic Director Hélène Blackburn said that teenage audiences are far more expressive and responsive than adult ones. Whenever they perform the show there's always lots of immediate reaction from the teenagers - gasping, laughing, whispering or giggling at the projections showing random couples snogging. And I have to say, I'm totally coming round to the belief that that's the way it should be. I like an audience that laughs, or gasps or just reacts in some way, rather than just sitting on our po-faced grey, adult bottoms simply offering a wall of blank faces to the performance. Dance is supposed to make an impression on you, you're supposed to respond - otherwise what's the point in watching it?

Perhaps I'm just a bit of a teenager at heart, after all ...