THE BEST OF...

DANCE

Laurie Booth premieres a new dance piece (right) at Woking Dance Umbrella on Tuesday. Apart from the usual multi-media propensity for silly typographic errors, ACT/ual f/ACT/ual demonstrates a mind-boggling melange of art, design and live music. The soundtrack is composed of live mobile phone conversations mixed into a noodling electronic score to create a virtual environment for dance. The atmosphere is enhanced by two 4-metre "trees" covered in videotape, which begin revolving slowly and gather speed until they resemble tornadoes. Booth dances with Gary Lambert and Shelley Baker, and the piece is accompanied by an improvised dance event - Stormgarden.

Woking Dance Umbrella, Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking (01243 816 000) 7.30pm pounds 5 on door. Then touring: Chichester Institute of Higher Education (5 Mar), Glasgow Tramway Theatre (7, 8 Mar)

FASHION

Walk into a mirrored ballroom of sumptuous frocks at "The Cutting Edge", the V&A's new fashion exhibition which opens this week. The show details British fashions from Savile Row tailoring to Zandra Rhodes's flamboyant punk couture, but has a strong romantic streak, with full-skirted evening gowns dripping in jewels to sinewy cocktail slips. Among the unique artefacts on display is Norman Hartnell's ivory silk gown made for the Queen in 1957.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London (0171-938 8500) from Thur

BRASS

In the film Brassed Off, Ewan McGregor's powerful screen pheromones managed to sex up the Sally army image of the brass band. Now gleaming horns at Liverpool's Institute of Performing Arts are getting frisky with a few Acid House tunes. Goodbye "The Floral Dance", hello E-head anthems such as the KLF's "What Time is Love?" and Todd Terry's "Can U Party". The event was conceived by artist Jeremy Deller, who believes the two musical movements have more in common than might first appear. Both have Northern roots, both have been played as the music of dissent: a brass soundtrack accompanied the miners' strikes, acid for the protests against the Criminal Justice Bill. So get along to the Fame school of Britain's chilly West Coast and rave on to the sound of the Stockport-based Williams Fairey Band. Proving beyond a doubt that where there's pop, there's brass.

Paul McCartney Auditorium, LIPA, Mount St, Liverpool (0151-709 5297) tonight, 8.30pm pounds 5, then touring: London (QEH, April) and Glasgow (Jazz Fest, June)

THEATRE

Arch Goon, film star, celebrity groupie and depressive megalomaniac, Peter Sellers is now the subject of a dynamic one-man show. Written and performed by Richard Braine (below, who's already charmed audiences with a rather fine impression of Michael Bentine), the piece focuses on a lesser-known incident towards the end of the star's life. Driving home to his London hotel one night in 1980, Sellers encountered a desperate man ready to throw himself off Archway viaduct. Sellers spent the night talking him down with an array of Goon anecdotes, impressions and Hollywood tales. This impromptu solo performance made him a hero in the press, but Braine's darkly humorous show takes a more sceptical line - questioning who was really saving who that night. Pleasance Theatre, London N7 (0171-609 1800) 8pm, pounds 5-10, from Wed

COMEDY

Disappointments, deflowerings, frustrations and betrayals - Geraldine McNulty (above) has suffered them all if her brilliant one-woman show is anything to go by. Although McNulty squeezes 10 women into a one-frock show, her sketches are less stand-up routines than mini operatic tragedies, beautifully realised in the manner of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. A team of writers hascollaborated to put McNulty's industrial-strength stage presence and dry wit to great use, with characters such as a young bride who somehow finds herself forced to get married in a red corduroy Robin Hood outfit, an evangelical country singer, and Luciette, a fading diva in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical forced to play a youngish role. The Komedia, 14-17 Manchester St, Brighton (01273 277772) Wed-Sat 8pm

NOSTALGIA

As if the retro sounds of Blur and Oasis weren't enough, the coming weeks offer all-out throwback. The Monkees (right) appear live on stage for the first time in 30 years in Newcastle on Friday, where they begin a national tour. The end of the month also sees Ray Davies enjoying the Waterloo Sunset of his career at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (0151-709 3789, 20 Mar). Newcastle Arena (0191-401 8000) Fri 7.30pm pounds 18.50

HYPE ALERT

Do you know your Tush Push from your Houston Slide, your Slappin' Leather from you Trashy Women? No? Well, good for you, since it means you've sidestepped the latest naff export from the States. Currently sweeping church halls up and down the country, line dancing is the latest thing. It's a kind of synchronised dancing whichrequires the talent of the hokey cokey and the dress sense of Dolly Parton. On Monday, regional heats for the British Line Dancing Championships take place in Poole. So get your cowboy hat on and leave your brain at home.

Poole Arts Centre, Dorset (01202 665334) 7pm pounds 8

PHOTOGRAPHY

After an acclaimed show in Tehran, the powerful portraiture of Iranian-born photographer Mamad Mossadegh comes to London this week. Following a career as a fashion photographer in Los Angeles, Paris and London, Mamad recently decided to return to his roots. Travelling through remote areas of his homeland, Mamad isolated his subjects, placing them against stark backdrops to ensure that the viewer's attention is focused solely on the inhabitants of this ancient culture. The trip has yielded some unusual supermodels (left) who, while hardly glamorous, offer poses far more resonant than this week's uberbabe.

Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London (0181-871 7572) from Wed

POP

Luther Vandross, king of the Soul boudoir and smoother than the silkworms' silk pyjamas cruises into the country this week for a short tour expressively dubbed Your Secret Love. Or should that be Lurve? On Wednesday he'll be thrilling the laydees in Glasgow,

SECC, Glasgow (0141-248 3000) pounds 22-25.50