Choreographer Rosie Kay's new production '5 SOLDIERS – The Body Is The Frontline' looks at how the body of the soldier reacts to the circumstances of training and war. It's also about the similarities between dancers and soldiers; their fetish for clothing and that certain masochism involved in their training. The piece is exploring the physicality of warfare. This idea is appealing, especially from the perspective of the choreographer - it's only natural to let the body react to something as corporal as military training.

I'll admit that I once felt very inspired by G.I. Jane and a bald Demi Moore (sigh, I know...), but I don't think I'd last very long as a soldier in a war zone (too much trauma and I'm a peace-lover anyway). Yet I find Kay's idea intriguing. But with the risk of sounding spoiled, I'd want to see real soldiers on stage - because in this context we're interested in their physicality, their beings, how the experience of war and the training for war is evident in their bodies. This would make the piece less formalised and aestheticised, and surely more intense and real. Only someone who has actually been to war can express what that experience is like. Because it's inside them, it's already in their body.

Now performance art in general is about simulating the real. Great acts of pretence. But when we challenge that notion and bring the real into the black box of the theatre, we take one step towards an experience closer to that of reality.

I just hope that '5 SOLDIERS' isn't yet another dance which merely appropiates an aesthetic, and then claims to be exploring something. Hopefully, it will ask questions and challenge the audience.

To learn more about it go to Rosie Kay Dance Company's website where you can listen to Kay talk about her work. '5 SOLDIERS' is being performed in London 20-21 May at Rifles Club, tickets are £25.