IF YOU thought you’d seen the last of those horrific trends from the 1980s, think again.

Because while some parts of Eastern Europe struggle to catch up with the 90s, the UK is currently in the grip of a nostalgic revival of the decade which fashion and good taste forgot.

Leg warmers, shoulder pads, hell, even Flashdance is back. Perhaps this new age of austerity and a desire to look fondly back at a time when greed was good and Jacko was king is to blame.

For whatever reason, if you ain’t working those impossibly skinny jeans and wearing t-shirts with neon thunderbolts shooting out of them, you just ain’t cool.

And if you were in any doubt over this seemingly unstoppable regression to Thatcher’s heyday, look no further than the past year’s unquenchable thirst for all things street dance.

Partly down to the national exposure given to groups such as Flawless and Diversity on Britain’s Got Talent, this new obsession with popping, locking and jaw-dropping flip, flops and head spins, is spreading all over the country like an adrenalin fuelled flu epidemic.

Blaze is the latest big bucks production to hit the tour circuit after wowing audiences at London’s Sadler’s Wells earlier this year.

Bursting with bright, garish primary colours and a thumping hip-hop sound track, director Anthony van Laast’s bombastic rampage through the dizzying variety of hip hop dance styles is an explosion of energy which requires no prior knowledge of the moves performed with infectious gusto by its 16 young performers.

Moving from one exhausting dance episode to the next in smooth succession, the international cast are an instantly likeable bunch who appear to be enjoying the evening as much as the lively, excitable audience of teenagers, nippers with their mums and the odd cool oldie or two.

Like a teenagers bedroom, Es Devlin’s impressive set is a wall of drawers and cabinets from which the performers pop in and out from like Fraggles high on e-numbers.

DJ Haze is the show’s convivial MC, sliding across the stage dancing the robot and leading a rap and dance called Atomic Food – complete with silly bum wiggles and hand waving for baked beans and celery.

Having seen the jaw-dropping routines of dance troupe Phase T, currently touring with long-running street dance show Breakin’ Convention, the Blaze performers’ technical proficiency paled in comparison to some of their contemporaries.

And for all its dazzling spectacle at times the show felt slightly contrived and disloyal to its urban roots. After all, the stage is quite different from the streets where the dance craze was born and developed.

But despite these minor misgivings, Blaze’s youthful fun and exuberance is sure to win you over in the end.

Blaze. The Orchard, Home Gardens, Dartford. Tonight. Call 01322 220000 or visit orchardtheatre.co.uk