Walking Stories, dance review: Take a walk on the mild side

How often do you look around you — I mean, really look? Walking Stories is the antidote to London tunnel vision — that heads-down, elbows-out way we so often get around.

Part of the Dance Umbrella festival, it’s an audio walk designed by choreographer Charlotte Spencer in which you are both participant and a performer of sorts, following instructions that guide you around a London park with a fellow group of travellers.

Don’t worry, no dance experience is necessary. More than anything, this is an exercise in mindfulness. As soon as you put your headphones on it’s as if the contrast has suddenly been turned up on your surroundings, not least the glorious full palette of autumn colours.

The actions of the walk encourage us to return to childlike curiosity, on the hunt for treasures, and to consider ourselves in space, our own simple choreography. The narration is a story of paths and lines and orbits, of getting lost (and possibly finding yourself), but the simple experience of looking, and being in the moment, is actually the most powerful part.