Performance artist Ultimate Dancer makes work that mingles choreography and spirituality. Here, she talks healing rituals, movement, and the power of darkness.
Diana Damian Martin

Articles by Diana Damian Martin
25 January 2018
Reviews • OWE & Fringe
Review: Le Récital des postures at London International Mime Festival
19 – 20 January 2018
By Diana Damian Martin
Uplift and downfall: Diana Damian Martin reviews Yasmine Hugonnet, as part of London International Mime Festival.
20 December 2017
Reviews • London Theatre • Reviews • West End & Central
Review: Snow Mouse at the Barbican
December 13 - December 23
By Diana Damian Martin
Winter wonderland: the egg and Travelling Light Theatre Company create a sensory world of snow.
28 November 2017
Features • Essays
Diorama for Shoalstone Pool
By Diana Damian Martin
Slow criticism: Diana Damian and Anette Therese Pettersen consider a meditative seaside performance created by Norwegian artist Ingri Fiksdal.
21 August 2017
Features
Trajal Harrell: Hoochie Koochie
By Diana Damian Martin
A deliberate toying with dance concepts and histories: Diana Damian Martin discusses the Barbican’s Trajal Harrell performance exhibition.
9 August 2017
Features
Ravnedans
By Diana Damian Martin
Dance in the age of climate change: Diana Damian Martin discusses this year’s Ravnedans festival in Norway.
27 July 2017
Features
FITEI: Community and Memory
By Diana Damian Martin
Diana Damian Martin writes on how Porto’s international theatre festival FITEI explores ideas of community, memory, and the past.
20 December 2016
Reviews • West End & Central
Review: Sponge at the Barbican
Barbican Pit ⋄ 13th - 21st December 2016
By Diana Damian Martin
Squishy, pulpy, squelchy, flabby: Diana Damian Martin reviews Turned On Its Head’s show for babies and toddlers.
8 November 2016
Reviews • London Theatre • West End & Central
Review: Holy Smoke at the Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre ⋄ 4th - 5th November 2016
By Diana Damian Martin
A pop shamanic spell like no other: Diana Damian Martin reviews Ultimate Dancer at the Southbank Centre.
6 October 2016
Features
Steakhouse: Live Art, Live Writing
By Diana Damian Martin
Performance festival Steakhouse Live returns for 2016 with a beefier line-up and a new embedded writing programme led by Diana and Bojana. Here, they discuss the fest’s growth, and why we need to think about new models of criticism that can support the shape-shifting practices of live art.
25 September 2016
Reviews • London Theatre • West End & Central
Review: Two Man Show at the Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre ⋄ 6th September - 1st October 2016
By Diana Damian Martin
“Where fake muses stand on fake plinths to pose for fake male gazes”: Diana Damian Martin reviews the post-Edinburgh run of Two Man Show at the Soho Theatre.
19 July 2016
Features
Foreignisation on Stage: Les Serpents
By Diana Damian Martin
“Your silhouette is an outrage to beautiful materials”. As part of a series of articles on theatre in translation, Diana Damian Martin explores the complexities of translating NDiaye’s text ‘Les Serpents’, a mythological exploration of colonialism.
13 July 2016
Features
Performance and the New Tate Modern
By Diana Damian Martin
“So what is the new Tate Modern? Is it the ultimate neoliberal art institution?” As the gallery opens its vast new Switch House extension, Diana Damian Martin explores the interplay between economics, performance and public engagement.
16 March 2016
Features
Nando Messias: Homophobia, marching bands and ‘The Sissy’s Progress’
By Diana Damian Martin
While some try to find their voice, Nando Messias has discovered his walk. Ahead of his performance ‘The Sissy’s Progress’ at Toynbee Studios, he discusses his experience of homophobic violence – and why he will not be silenced.
10 March 2016
Reviews • Exhibitions • Reviews
Review: Performing for the Camera at Tate Modern
Tate Modern ⋄ 18th February - 12th June 2016
By Diana Damian Martin
Diana Damian Martin finds that the Tate Modern’s exhibition imposes an “obscure, totalising framework” onto the complex interplay between performance and photography.