Last updated 11:46, Monday, 20 October 2008

HOW would you describe Carlisle? Reiver is willing to bet that you wouldn’t call it “a place where women warp and swarm, goats trot on ancient mountain switchbacks, ghosts shimmer quietly and wolves tear away at fences.”

Warping and swarming? New York’s Katie Workum Dance Theater

Well, not unless you’d spent the evening sampling two-for-one cocktail offers on Botchergate. This exotic description comes from New York City, where a new dance show called Carlisle has just been staged.

Reiver is not sure whether the production by Katie Workum Dance Theater (as they insist on spelling “theatre” over there) is based in any way on the Great Border City. Let’s look at some more of the publicity material: “Limbs and ideas intermingle with our animal instincts, our sadness and our gladness. The inhabitants live in a both abstract and familiar world of impulses, camaraderie and antlers that make up all our everyday lives.”

Impulses, camaraderie and antlers? Yep – that’s our Carlisle alright.