Top 5: Waterside Arts shows & events in Spring 2019

Entertainment is go at Waterside this February, taking in talks of both the serious and the slightly less serious slant, along with comedy and cabaret, plus performance from a brand-new dance company and classic pantomime. So plenty to pick from as the new year unfolds in Sale. Oh no there isn’t! Oh yes there is…

Talk: Hans Rey

Mountain bike adventurer and former World Champion Hans Rey promises to take you on an inspiring journey through his 30-year career, stretching from his early riding days in Germany, through the mountain bike boom in the USA, to his extreme biking feats and adventures (including the first two-wheel descent of Mount Kenya and crossing the Sinai Desert), his charity work and his vision on the future of the sport.

Thu 24 Jan, 7.30pm, £16-18, watersidearts.org

Dance: Emergence 2019 Tour

Emergence is the new postgraduate company of award-winning Joss Arnott Dance and the University of Salford, and their first tour sees the 12 dancers perform two new works created for them. And still I walk… by Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Sharon Watson takes inspiration from women’s suffrage while Arnott’s exhilarating When Worlds Collide offers a technical masterclass that plays to the strengths of the dancers, and features a cinematic music score and elaborate lighting.

Fri 1 Feb, 7.30pm, £9-11, watersidearts.org

Cabaret: Mother’s Ruin

Mother’s Ruin returns to Waterside for the Queer Contact 2019 annual festival celebrating LGBT arts and culture in Greater Manchester, and is presented in association with Waterside, Contact and Royal Exchange Theatre. Expect a fabulous line-up, witnessing the meeting of rising stars from the Mother’s Bloomers events, where bold short new works by local alternative artists hit the stage, plus artists from the Mother’s Ruin irreverent universe of poetry, comedy, music and drag. Pic: Mother’s Ruin compere extraordinaire, Timberlina.

Fri 8 Feb, 8pm, £10-12, watersidearts.org

Comedy: The Complete History of Pop In an Hour

Described as “riotously funny”, and fresh from two consecutive years at the Edinburgh Fringe, award-winning drumming comedian Paul Richards is joined by a variety of shambolic special guests – aka Something that Vaguely Resembles a Choir – to lay before you the entire history of pop music in the length of one singalong show. With the aim of performing 55 songs in 90 minutes, we’re sure nothing at all could go wrong…

Sun 10 Feb, 7.30pm, £10-12, watersidearts.org

Panto: Jack & The Beanstalk

The classic fairytale gets a makeover from Lyngo Theatre, and promises plenty of surprises for adults and kids alike. Patrick Lynch of Cbeebies fame tells the gripping and ever-enchanting tale of Jack, who sells his cow for five magic beans then finds himself in the land above the clouds when his plants grow sky high. Perfect for the over threes (and their giants), this show has something for everyone – enormous shoes, tiny houses, showers of silver and gold, and, apparently, a big, leafy explosion.

Mon 11 Feb, 1.30pm, £7-9, watersidearts.org

Fri 1 Feb – Mon 11 Feb, Waterside, 1 Waterside Plaza, Sale, Manchester, M33 7ZF, Tel: 0161 912 5616, times and prices vary, watersidearts.org

For more arts and culture in Manchester, click here.

A Manchester Wire partnership post.