VINCENT Dance Theatre’s show Motherland is a show about having it all – “inching its way through airbrushed beauty, boob jobs and Botox, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, the might of motherhood and the challenge of childlessness”.

The ensemble of men, women and children take a look at the gender they were born with and the price they’re paying for it. Or as the publicity blurb puts it, “Spurred on by Simone de Beauvoir, Caitlin Moran and the Spice Girls, Vincent goes into battle with the big boys, arguing against a narrow, oversexualised definition of femininity to ask what it is that we really, really want”.

The show blends dance, text and live music with the declared aim of moving people and making them think. VDT has a participation programme to accompany the Motherland tour, including workshops, residencies, exhibitions and installations.

  • Motherland: Dance City, Newcastle, April 5. Box Office 0191-2610505 and dancecity.co.uk PHOENIX Dance Theatre is touring its critically- acclaimed show Refined to venues in North Yorkshire as part of Thirsk-based Rural Arts spring ON Tour line-up.

One of Britain’s leading contemporary dance companies, Phoenix was chosen as one of the headline events at the Yorkshire Festival, part of the festivities for the Grand Depart.

Thanks To Rural Arts, the company can be seen next month in Stillington, Thirsk, Malton and Kirkbymoorside.

Before the tour, Phoenix Dance Theatre will spend four days working with local young people at Brooklyn Youth Centre, Norton, to create a short piece to be performed as a curtain-raiser for the tour.

Refined is a mixed programme with solos, duets and more that highlights their most popular pieces from the last five years, curated by the company’s artistic director Sharon Watson.

  • The performance has been designed for smaller venues, allowing for a more intimate performance compared to their usual shows. Information and tickets available at ruralarts.org HARROGATE International Festival’s Spring Series draws to a close with a finale from world famous pianist Young-Choon Park on April 6. She gave her first recital at the age of seven. No wonder she was dubbed a child prodigy.

The Harrogate programme sees her opening with Beethoven’s truly virtuosic Sonata No 3 which is contrasted by the tragic sonorities of Sonata No. 8. She then plays Chopin Sonata No 3 in B Minor, considered to be one of his most difficult compositions, technically and musically. She hopes audiences will feel she’s “touched into their hearts”. Her challenging choice of sonatas reflects her passion. “Great musicians are artists, they are philosophers,” she says. “It’s not just playing and performing. What you’re aiming for as a performer is to try to give audiences some experience, some spiritual moment so they have something to take back home, which is very important.”

Her intense relationship to music promises an incredible performance.

“I don’t know if I’m married to music,” Young- Choon says, “but I like to be a better pianist, however difficult. Despite how hard it might be. I still have a good personal life but some people do a lot at the same time – teaching, motherhood – I find that remarkable.

“Everyone is different, I can do one thing. It would be great luck if I married, like winning the lottery that’s just a hope, like I wish I was a millionaire or go to the moon. But if I become a great pianist, it wouldn’t be luck.”

  • Young-Choon Park appears at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, on April 6, 11am. 01423-562303