Science and art coming together is a beautiful thing. A totally wrong coupling that sometimes climaxes in an eruption of sci-art fusion magic. That's presumably what the Science Museum is after in appointing not onlya writer but a dancer in residence for the summer months. Contemporary dancer and choreographer, Athina Vahla "concentrates on epic, site-specific work taking a collaborative approach to create multi-media pieces." That's artspeak for mash-ups, right? Vahla is specifically working on......

There are more theatre openings in London this week than decent sunny spells, many of them featuring some familiar (read: off telly) faces... Under the Blue Sky, a story of three intertwined love stories with Catherine Tate, a couple of girls you'll recognise from Cranford, and him from the IT Crowd starts previews at the Duke of York today. Over at the Vaudeville, more Cranfordians tread the boards in The Female of the Species......

When you get back from your audition for Showtime Challenge 3 on Saturday, what better way to extend the musical showbizzery than joining Sadlers Wells Dance Club's West End night? Even if you chicken out of trying out for the stage yourself this is a fabulous way to indulge your West End whimsy and learn routines from Chicago, West Side Story and the ultimate dancers' musical, A Chorus Line. Camp it up, honeys! Heels,......

Akram Khan & Juliette Binoche by roll the dice We were fortunate to be in the company of the beautiful people on Friday when actress Juliette Binoche and dance star Akram Khan revealed their upcoming Franco-British collaboration for the National Theatre. The project - In-I - is under wraps in the sense that it's still being made but will see a dance theatre performance of some kind, vaguely based on personal experiences of love hit......

If you're into anything dancy you'd be hard pushed to find a better night out than at Fabric. Tonight in the floor quivering Room 1 Drop The Lime drops in from Brooklyn to play along side Switch & The Scratch Perverts while over in room 2 Australian drum and bass chart invaders, Pendulum, headline with support from the likes of Goldie. It's room 3 we're most excited about though as it celebrates the release......

English National Ballet's return to its roots at the Royal Festival Hall on a balmy summer's evening last night was ultimately triumphant although there were first night nerves, timing and injury issues to deal with. A Million Kisses to my Skin opened the programme but, despite a stand out performance by Erina Takahashi who was delightful to watch, you could have been forgiven for missing the fact that this work is all about the......

Once a year, Canary Wharf is transformed by Dancing City. There's nothing quite like seeing aerialistes descending from the glass and steel powerhouses of corporate finance or parkour artists dashing effortlessly through the artificial garden of Cabot Square to make you look at this blue chip island quite differently. Turn up from 1pm on Sunday and be ambushed by all sorts of dance forms around Canary Wharf. See Bharata Natyam does football, a tango......

English National Ballet returns to the Royal Festival Hall this July after an absence of 11 years, with a promisingly lyrical, accessible and pleasing mixed bill. The Company was formed in 1950 - the same year as the Festival Hall as part of the Festival of Britain so it's apt that this show is called Festival Ballet. Yes, there will be tutus but this is no frou frou event. It's a celebration of classical......

Fed up with this ever changing weather and longing for some summer sultriness? Well, a taste of Cuban culture, live on stage, could be just what you need. Havana Rakatan is an infectious explosion of Cuban music and dance featuring 14 hot and sexy dancers and a live band. Refresh your love of latin grown on Strictly Come Dancing and see the whole gamut from slinky rumba to vibrant cha-cha-cha performed in cool and......

Tonight marks the end of Wednesday's most famous club night - Nag Nag Nag. Borne out of the electroclash wave in the early naughties, Jonny Slut, Fil OK and JoJo De Freq have been packing the underground lair of Ghetto with many a fashionable wreck every week since. At it's peak everyone wanted in from Bjork to Justin Timberlake, Bono to Christina Aguilera but it was the crowd of metro sexual DIY rule breakers......

Frantic crayola coloured "Scribbling" as cockroaches scuttle away under a huge lamp, Saint-Saëns’ wonderful score for "Carnival of the Animals" given a new lease of life by Siobhan Davies, done out in white tuxedoes (spot the beasts!) followed by the entire company dressed as the Queen prior to stripping off their royal garb and throwing themselves off a cliff in "Anatomica #3". All this with the 'mood and dynamics' sign language interpreted at the......

Good News, Dance Fans - London's Big Dance will be going ahead as planned this year. New Mayor Boris had lost no time in appointing a supremo to review cultural events planned by the Greater London Authority, so at Londonist we are pleased to hear that this jewel in the capital's 2008 cultural calendar has not been pulled. We are even more chuffed to get wind that the launch of the countdown to the......

Green Apples by Mark Bruce courtesy of The Place Spring Loaded is The Place's annual festival of fresh contemporary dance. We enthused about the opening show, Probe's Magpie, and we weren't disappointed (it was ace - so different and diverse and frankly, smoking hot and funny). Now the season is coming to a close and we're inclined to highlight a couple of gems that are ideal for popping along to on these gorgeously, light and......

On Thursday night, Four tet headlined The Eat Your Own Ears series at the Indigo2 in Greenwich, an incredible space with a really terrific sound and lighting system. Before we get to fawning over Four tet, however, the opening acts deserve a mention here. First up was Kode9, whose pulsing rhythm set the mood nicely, but to be fair, we were concentrating more on the beer. Next up was the happy surprise of the......

Ether 2008 is well under way, and last night Radio Soulwax Presents… made sure to kick it up a notch. For the UK premiere of the tour film Part of the Weekend Never Dies, Belgian electro band Soulwax had taken over the Royal Festival Hall, and as well as showing the film in the auditorium (twice), guest DJs such as UK DJ Riton played sets throughout the night. The film paints a picture of......

Photography courtesy of D I C K S D A I L Y via the Londonist pool on Flickr. Interested in your drink-related photos appearing on Londonist? Click here.......

Some people are old before their time. Others are always young at heart. Yet others don't know how to act their age and instead of retiring quietly and fading into the background, decide to form an elderly arts group and go on tour with a dance show. Like the China-wide Beijing Elderly Art Group (BEAG) and The UK Zimmers Both groups are made entirely of performers over 65, and for one night only, they......

If you're ever going to listen to our recommendations about dance, today is the day to do so. Dance partnership, Probe, Antonia Grove and Theo Clinkard, are opening the Spring Loaded festival at The Place this year, launching a showcase of the most refreshing contemporary dance talent around. Last year we got over excited about Mark Bruce who - in a fantastic coincidence - crops up as one of Probe's choreographers here. Watch out......

Last night London's Luvvieland came together for their annual award ceremony, the Oliviers. Having received 11 nominations across 10 categories, it looked like being Hairspray's night. And Londonist is happy to confirm what we already knew: the show is a deserved winner of the Best New Musical accolade. In addition, Leanne Jones (Best Actress in a Musical) rocks as the optimistic teen, Tracy Turnblad; Tracie Bennett (Best Supporting Role in a Musical) is similarly......

It's officially Spring and by Pisces it's lovely out there in the sunshine. Crocuses have been spotted in Highbury Fields so our biggest recommendation for expenditure light trips this week is get to the parks and into the gardens and witness the miracles of the changing seasons. If you're in need of more artificial stimulation, however, and are squirrelling all your spare cash into your ISA before the end of the tax year then......

Just as London spring begins to break beautifully over the city, the Flamenco Festival is charging into Sadlers Wells to make us all long for the heat and sultriness of a Spanish summer. The fiesta spans the spectrum of the dance form from the Farruquito family presenting traditional gypsy flamenco to one woman and one man pushing flamenco into the 21st Century. There's a showcase homage to the great women of Flamenco, tributes to......

Is it just us or was January rubbish? Nice then that February, with its special extra day this year, commences with Brazilian Carnival, yummy pancakes and Chinese New Year... it's like a whole new start for 2008 and lots of it totally FREE! Monday: Get some Monday Love at the Inspiral Lounge, Camden Lock as UK Indymedia host their radical film, talk, and music night. Free entry for all those who still believe in......

The Chinese New Year Celebrations in Soho are undoubtedly one of the highspots of London’s cultural calendar, and this year there’s a load of extra stuff (some would say hype) going on ‘cos of the Beijing/London Olympic connection. Last year’s ceremonies were the biggest outside China, and this year’s look set to be even more impressive. So here’s a special Londonist round up of where to see and what to do…. 6th February: kick......

Strictly Come Dancing may be but a glitzy, Christmas twinkle in the memory banks but for all of you that fell in love once more with the heat and hustle of the latin section, Samba Dance Club night at Sadlers Wells is something you need to know about. Starting at 7.15pm with a beginners class (ie you don't need to know ANYTHING) then progressing to intermediate at 8.15pm (for those of you with a......

We've not done very well on the virtuous January front and seem to have spent all our money and most of our nights out on the lash with a flagrant disregard for propriety and our bank account. We don't mind though because, as usual, there are some excellent free things to do in town this week. Monday: British Asian gangsta folk ska punk is where it's at with the intriguing sounding Barbar Luck at......

A Korean company performing their own interpretation of a German Expressionist play to contemporary tango music using only chairs could, on paper, be utterly preposterous. Yet, in the flesh, Woyzeck by The Sadari Movement Laboratory (at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night) was an incredibly strong, powerful and moving production presented as part of the London International Mime Festival. Woyzeck deals with sexual jealousy, the brutalising of soldiers by war, paranoia, oppression and class......

Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......

Be there first Circus-style theatre comes to London in Afrika! Afrika! opening this week after heavy advertising which has been around for months. Performers from 17 different African nations make up the show; contortionists, acrobatics, jugglers, high-wire acts, musicians, singers, the list goes on. If you're thinking of joining the reported 1.5 million who've seen the show since it launched in Germany in 2005, bear in mind: ticket prices are up with the high......

It's easy to laugh at mime - the performers can't say anything back. But in the case of the London International Mime Festival, they could well leap off the stage on bungee ropes and encase you in a massive block of clay then make you a key part of an adult puppet show. This isn't a two week lovefest for tall chaps in stripy tops and white make up trapped in invisible glass boxes:......

January is a toughie. Torn between new year's virtue and that rebellious streak? Well, here are some things to amuse you that at least wont tug too hard at your purse strings. Monday: Witch hunts to start the week at Gresham College from 6pm. Free knowledge. Tuesday: Are you a tech geek? Are you interested in search engines, the internet and web technology? Do you need to make more friends? Well, pitch up for......