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This 'aint decaf
Moving through life with jazz and espresso

By Paul Ransom

“It’s an old trick in theatre but it’s not often done in dance,” states Jo McDonald, artistic director of Adelaide based company Move Through Life.

The trick, in this instance, is to discard the fourth wall and bring the performance off the stage and into the auditorium; indeed even into the foyer.

MTL’s fifth production, Black Coffee is now in development and the aim is to recreate the buzz of a 1950s jazz club, a kind of subcultural immersion in music, movement and espresso. To that end theatre staff will be dressed and act in character, a live jazz band will play throughout and the smell of fresh coffee and good food will permeate the space.

“We’re trying to get away from the idea of the audience just sitting passively and waiting for ‘the performance’ to start,” Jo outlines. “We’re welcoming them instead into a club, a whole sensory world of music and dance and artistry, and the moment they come through the door they’ll be right

MTL dancers Karen Humphreys, Kelly Moritz and
Kirsten Alexander rehearse.

inside not just a show but a culture.” What that means is
costumed dancers scattered among the audience, with the jazz influenced dance routines onstage being interspersed with apparently random outbreaks of contemporary dance and live theatre.

As Jo explains, “In this way our audience will get to see that a dancer is part of a very human world and that behind the shimmer of entertainment there’s this extraordinarily rich and dramatic world of ego, rivalry, teamwork, insecurity and great passion.”

It’s an ambitious project but one which dovetails neatly with MTL’s ethos. When Jo started the company in 2004 she wanted to break the mould and blur the often harshly drawn line between professional and non-professional dance.
She also wanted to dissolve the notion that dance is somehow an exclusive pursuit.

“Almost everyone dances,” she says. “Dance is everywhere, not just on the big stage or on TV. Y’know, if you look, you’ll find it’s all around you.”

Black Coffee puts this idea in motion, surrounding the audience and infusing the entire space with the dance, bringing the audience inside the choreography. “Just like a good coffee, that involves taste, smell and ritual and which gives you a bit of a buzz, this production wants to surround the senses and create the excitement of being part of something.”

Black Coffee will premiere in March 2009 as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

For more information on Move Through Life Dance Company visit www.movethroughlife.org.au