BY SHEER coincidence March looks like an unofficial Dancefest. Another Australian tour de force by the 1995 Olivier Award winning choreographer of Hot Shoe Shuffle, Dein Perry, Tap Dogs, which opens at the Gaiety on March 6th, is set on a building site with dancers swarming over scaffolding, girders, ladders and ropes.

Meanwhile, Rubato Ballet will be in the Samuel Beckett Theatre from March 12th-16th. The company will perform two pieces choreographed by Fiona Quilligan: Dark Pigeons, inspired by three Lorca poems to music by Frankie Lane and Joey Wearen, and Signals, to music by Fergus Johnston.

They will be followed into the Samuel Beckett on March 19th by Dance Theatre of Ireland with a double bill of two premieres. The company has commissioned the award winning duo Blok & Steel from Amsterdam to create a new piece for the company. This will be coupled with the latest piece by DTI co directors Loretta Yurick and Robert Connor, entitled Body, Travel, Time.