By Dolce Fisher
Dancenorth’s Underground is the most exciting piece of Contemporary dance I have seen in a long time. Choreographed by Dancenorth’s director Gavin Webber with the dancers, Underground has a taste of Tanja Liedtke’s quirky flair and the athleticism of Australian Dance Theatre.
I had seen the company perform a snippet of Underground at the Australian Dance Awards this year, and found it so interesting and engaging that I was eager to see the complete work. I was far from disappointed. The work is fun, new and exciting. I didn’t want it to end. It left me wanting more as it took us on an emotional journey, twisting and turning from complete hysterics to utter sadness . I wanted to laugh and cry.
The set is simple - several “old school” vending machines and a series of uncomfortable train station plastic seats. The set is complete with a train platform edge at the front of the stage.
We are immediately taken into the world of each character - a shift worker, a sex-crazed businessman, a woman who is hopelessly in love, a “druggy” and a Japanese tourist who can’t speak English. Every dancer is deep in character from beginning to end and the audience feels a part of each character’s life.
There are just to many jokes too mention, ranging from the light hearted to utter sarcasm. There are a few jokes with a sexual nature, but it is all in jest. There is also some use of harsh language (a warning for younger audiences), but it absolutely reflects the characters. The interaction between the characters keeps our attention. There is so much happening all the time, with deeply intense moments where our emotions are pushed in opposite directions in only a short space of time. This work pushes the envelope physically and emotionally.
The choreography has been developed over a long period of time with Gavin Webber beginning the process for this work whilst he was teaching at Queensland University of Technology in 2004. Some of the current dancers in the company were involved in those beginning stages of Underground whilst studying at QUT. Webber was able to offer the dancers contracts with Dancenorth later in 2006. QUT is definitely training and producing many strong Australian dancers.
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