Big Dance 2.0 – REVIEW
Image: Big Dance 2.0, Madeleine Backen, Amy Flannery, Jye Uren, Ella Watson-Heath and Mitchell Christie. Photo by Nat Cartney
Big Dance 2.0, presented by FORM Dance Projects and Riverside Theatres, is created by Dance Makers Collective (DMC), a dance company which was formed 10 years ago. During that time they have produced 17 dance productions and have performed in theatres, galleries, town halls and even in parks, street corners and on Instagram – if there was an audience regardless of locality they were ready to dance!
The company’s founding work, Big Dance in Small Chunks has been revived by a new generation of dancers who will one day be leaders in the field.
Nine dancers of varying ages and expertise have co-curated, created, and are performing in their own works which highlight the diversity in creativity.
The opening performance surprisingly contains singing as there are musical references to the band Queen. It’s energetic and audiences may find themselves toe-tapping to the music as they watch these marvellous dancers at work.
Woman fights serpent in one work and the imagination boggles in another which requires three laptops on stage live streaming the dance routine on a screen. Just when you think the creativity has surely reached its limit the belly button becomes the topic in another dance from this delicious smorgasbord of brand new works of varying lengths.
Contemporary dance is the style of dance audiences can expect to see. Some of the works are narrative driven while others are abstract and not so easy to follow.
Effective lighting adds to the mix enhancing the colours of the costumes – some of which can only be described as ‘wacky’!
The format of this performance is reminiscent to that of the traditional children’s end of year dance concert but be warned, there is partial nudity in one of the works which may be worrying for parents of younger children.
It’s mind-boggling the creativeness that shines on stage. What stands out from these challenging, poignant and at times humorous works is the love, energy, passion, and hard work that these talented artists have devoted to their craft.
Big Dance 2.0 may not be appealing to some audiences, but it’s always great to experience something different. If these people jump out of their ‘entertainment safety zone’ which they’ve been locked in for years and attend this performance they may be pleasantly surprised!
But be quick as there are only two more performances!
Until October 14
Riverside Theatres, Corner Church & Markets streets Parramatta.
www.form.org.au/big-dance-2-0/
