Review: Underground

Underground by Dancenorth

Presented by Performance Space

Carriageworks

Oh, the youth! Six agile and supple bodies emerge from busted up vending machines on a set that could be on any train station in the world. Each of them adorned in a costume that leaps out as a caricature almost as quickly as the dancers move - the foreign tourist, the white-collar worker, the uni student, the waitress, the junky, the hot girl.

Like a film in fast forward the dancers rush around the space, slowing down, taking positions, sitting, standing and repeating movements unique to each character. With a soundtrack straight out of a film clip the performers quickly establish the space and their relationship to it. 

Their interaction, however, is accidental. They are just commuters waiting for a train - six individuals brought together only through necessity amid a bare but familiar urban landscape.

The piece is broken up into two distinct pieces that centre entirely on the spatial surroundings provided through the set. In the first half the dancers move between the barriers of the vending machines and the train line and in the second, the space gradually opens up and a more expansive set of sequences take over.

It is, however, the first half that captures the imagination as you study and gasp at movement that appears simply effortless. The twists in the air, the floor work and the ensemble pieces set around, over and under the train station benches is riveting. On its own, it would work just as well as a dance production.

The second half is thematically more risk-taking but maintains a cheek and humour that is laced through the show from the moment it opens. The music becomes louder and more indulgent and the performers start to explore a dream world where the individual becomes part of a collective. 

Utilising a space over twice the size of the framed train station set the dancers once again glow, displaying their agility and youthful ability with all the front of brand new sports car. The show however starts to get histrionic once the music blares up and the more serious subject matter is tackled. 

It is probably just a case of dancing and touring experience, but it surely won't be long before the wonderful natural skills of these dancers firm up and in time such choreographic moments will be more convincingly executed.

Underground is on until Saturday. 

$30/$25/$20 + BF (Student Rush Wed & Thur $15)
www.performancespace.com.au

DIRECTOR Gavin Webber CHOREOGRAPHY Gavin Webber & the dancers ORIGINAL LIGHTING DESIGN Jo Currey ADDITIONAL LIGHTING AND TOUR DESIGN Bluebottle- Benjamin Cisterne SOUND DESIGN Luke Smiles COSTUME AND SCENIC CONSTRUCTION Sarah Jobling PERFORMERS Alice Hinde, Charmene Yap, Hsin Ju Chiu, Joshua Thomson, Kate Harman, Kyle Page