FOLLOWING a sold-out, highly successful UK premiere in 2024, STORIES - The Tap Dance Sensation from RB Dance Company returns this autumn for a UK tour, visiting Hall for Cornwall, Truro on Wednesday, November 11.

A modern take on tap dance, STORIES is a bold, energetic narrative-driven production that centres on Icarus, a successful young actor trapped under the control of a powerful film director. After a fierce confrontation, Icarus finds himself unable to break free from the director’s stranglehold.

Conceived by Romain Rachline Borgeaud, the story is brought to life by a cast of 10 exceptional dancers performing a fusion of tap dance and urban jazz to an original score composed by Romain himself. A dynamic, transformable set by Federica Mugnai transports audiences through a cinematic world of film sets, hotels, and gambling clubs, with atmospheric lighting by Alex Hardellet and costumes by Margaux Ponsard and Janie Loriault.

Founded in 2018 by artistic director, choreographer and producer Romain Rachline Borgeaud, RB Dance Company was initially created to revitalise tap dance and reintroduce it to contemporary audiences through ambitious large-scale narrative productions. With STORIES the company aims to modernise the art form while celebrating its theatrical roots.

In France, RB Dance Company rose to national prominence as finalists on France’s Got Talent in both 2018 and 2024. The company’s first stage production, STORIES premiered to critical acclaim, winning three awards at Les Trophées De La Comédie Musicale (France’s equivalent of the Olivier Awards), and has since been seen by over 300,000 people.

Romain Rachline Borgeaud began tap dancing at an early age before training in jazz and continuing his training at The Ailey School, the official school of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, in New York. He went on to perform in multiple musicals on Broadway, and after returning to France performed in Dance of the Vampires, and Stephen Mear’s Singin’ in the Rain and 42ndStreet. Recently, Romain created the choreography for Molière, le spectacle musical and the revival of Les Misérables at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris. In addition, he also choreographed the opening ceremony for the 2016 Champs Elysées Film Festival before founding RB Dance Company in 2018.

Of STORIES, Roman Rachline Borgeaud said: “After a remarkable response to the UK Premiere of STORIES, I’m delighted to be bringing this production back to the West End and on tour nationwide. The work explores themes of duality, using a contemporary dance language to express Icarus’s intense inner journey. I hope audiences enjoy being immersed in this cinematic world and sharing in the energy, emotion, and joy of tap dance.”

Please could you tell us a bit about your background and how you got into dance?

I discovered dance very young through tap, before training in jazz and joining the Rosella Hightower dance school in Cannes on a dance-study track. I then trained at Alvin Ailey in New York and performed with 360° Modern Dance Company. Before even training, I was a big fan of Gene Kelly and Michael Jackson. They definitely inspired me to dance, and I have also always been amazed by their theatricality. I fell in love with Gene Kelly's style when I was a kid — he is the reason why I started dancing and tap dancing. I also played the cello since I was 4, which led me to learn the piano and guitar, so music and dance have been a huge part of my life very early on. I danced in several musicals in the United States A Chorus Line, Hairspray, Cats, Anything Goes before coming back to France in 2014 to perform at Mogador in Le Bal Des Vampires, then in Singin' In The Rain and 42nd Street at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Working in musicals confirmed my love for storytelling and for tap dance, and the US was a great place for me to train as a performer. I founded the RB Dance Company in 2018 to explore the mix of tap and urban jazz — which eventually led to STORIES, the company's first creation.

What was your inspiration for STORIES?

I wanted to use cinema as a symbolic topic. The show plays on a duality : for the main character, there is real life and there is what happens in the movies, and different aspects of his life are explored from both perspectives. I was really interested in bringing that on-and-off-screen idea to a show. It is also a way to pay homage to different films, as each scene takes inspiration from a different one. I wrote the show, then wrote the staging, then the music, and finally the choreography. But all along that process, movement was always on my mind, so I let the choreography grow throughout these stages so that it would naturally flow when we got to rehearsal.

The show is performed by a fantastic cast of 10 - can you tell us a bit about their roles?

There are specific roles in the narrative of the show, but at the same time apart from the lead Icare, all of them are also part of the ensemble. Stories is in many ways an ensemble piece, and this interplay between ensemble and roles is part of the dance between dream and reality. I created the show in 2019 and I will always carry it in my heart, but the performers are the ones to make the show now. Every time I see them giving their life on stage, the magic works. I feel blessed to see such amazing artists giving life to the show night after night, they are the ones who made it possible so far and I hope they will get the success they deserve.

The show has been hugely successful already, with a sold-out premiere in 2024. What excites you about your return to the UK and this tour?

It is an honor and a great challenge for us to perform in front of a UK audience, as they are used to seeing dance shows and musicals. The show pays tribute to traditional musical theatre in a contemporary way, and I am very excited to see how it will be received around the UK this time around in comparison with London, and to have a feel of what a longer run in the West End means.

What can audiences expect when they come to see STORIES?

What strikes me the most is how much energy audiences get from the show. I also wanted the set to be a character that transforms throughout the show, and not have performers dancing in a set, but actually with it. Icarus' journey brings him into many different places, and the set changing around keeps the focus on him, becoming an element of surprise each time there is a new way of using it. There is something magical and deeply theatrical about that constant transformation, which turns out to be one of the highlights of the show for the audience.

What is your personal favourite moment in the show (or favourite thing about the show more generally)?

It constantly changes. Every time I see the show I appreciate and re-discover different things. But there are a few moments in the show where the audience constantly gasps and holds their breath and I absolutely love to feel their surprise.

Why should people come to see STORIES?

So they get filled with high energy! If they love tap dancing, to love it even more. If they don’t, to realise there’s a world where they actually do...