New York’s Chelsea Hotel is an establishment with a reputation for decadence to rival — perhaps even exceed — that of London's Café Royal. An institution over many years, it was name-checked by two of my favourite troubadours in two of my favourite songs, Bob Dylan’s Sara and Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel.

In respect of the latter song, it was not until May 1976, and a performance by Cohen at Oxford’s New Theatre, that I learned that the sexual activities described in it had involved Janis Joplin. This struck me then as rather an ungallant revelation.

The hotel has a place in literary history, too, as a venue for the writing of, among others, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.

The building is now the subject of a work by Earthfall Dance Company, which tomorrow night visits Oxford’s Pegasus Theatre (01865 812150/pegasustheatre.org.uk).

To quote Earthfall’s press release: “Over 70 minutes Chelsea Hotel reveals the poetry and tragicomic events from the iconic hotel and its place in contemporary culture, performed through dynamic dance, live music and film. Several stories, true and false, interplay through a voyeuristic discovery of the inhabitants’ lives, loves and longings.

“Our production is a crazy mixture of poetic movement, sex, violence, rock and roll, anger, companionship, cowboys and ghosts. It blends truth with lies, reality with fantasy. Projected images layer in narrative, environment and story fragments told directly to camera.”

Sounds like pretty compelling stuff.