THIS is tap dance at its most butch. Forget any images of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly smoothly dancing in tuxedos or even Wayne Sleep tap dancing in the jungle in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!

Dein Perry's Tap Dogs is tap... ghetto-style.

Six sweaty Australians with an amazing sense of rhythm compete with each other in a building site setting to see who can tap fastest, loudest and in the most unusual way.

This may well be the only place where you will see four welly-clad men tap dancing in a trough of water. But, believe me, it is one spectacle you don't want to miss.

In fact the dancing in water antics are so boisterous that audience members on the front row were issued with special theme-park style ponchos to wear before the show.

Wearing jeans, T-shirts, lumberjack shirts and workmen's boots, the team behind Tap Dogs would look more at home working in a garage or on a farm than performing in a dance show.

But turning traditional ideas on their head is one of the main points behind this incredibly macho and energetic show.

The thought of being entertained purely by tap for an hour and twenty minutes sounds mind-numbing and mundane. But apart from the occasional, and thankfully fleeting, moments of monotony, the ensemble managed to make the audience gasp, laugh and in some cases even shriek with delight.

In the most impressive part of the show, one of the pocket-size members of thecast was hoisted up by ropes and amazed the audience by tap-dancing on the ceiling.

Just in case the loud stomping moves weren't masculine enough to convince the men that dancing isn't just for girls, macho accessories including power tools, ladders, scaffolding and cigarettes were thrown in to the mix.

Tilting floors, firemen's poles and a tap routine involving a basketball varied the show just enough to make sure they always held the audience's attention.

The lack of a programme in the theatre meant the dancers from Down Under remained strangely anonymous. Amusing themselves with slapstick violence and even at one point pretending to urinate on each other's feet, the cast seemed to enjoy themselves almost as much as the audience.

Box office: 01904 671818

Updated: 10:50 Tuesday, May 06, 2003