Moonwebs & Scorched Thongs

Sunday, 7 April 2009

So you think you can dance? Yes, we are in the midst of a youthquake dance craze and boys are no longer afraid to show off their acrobatic and partner lifting skills courtesy of many hours at the ballet barre, and girls can rightly bring it! to the hiphop floor and krump till it hurts.

Steps Youth Dance Company, celebrating it's 20th year of creating dance for more than 2000 young people between the ages of 9 and 24 years, has contributed greatly to the development of movement and dance theatre in Western Australia. It started a Boys Can Dance initiative 12 years ago which has paid handsome dividends in the equal representation of males and females in this production's cast, and a relatively balanced view of gender politics for Generation Y & Z (the latter of whom I like to refer to as the iGeneration - as in iPod or internet).

A rather erotic quote was used in the miniprogram supplied at the Playhouse Theatre from Project Artistic Director, Alice Lee Holland:

"Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no purely masculine man, no purely feminine woman." - Margaret Fuller, The Dial Magazine, 1843

Confronting sexuality it would seem (the quote was supplied by one of the dancers for a communal ideas pin up board), but don't worry, this performance piece was more interested in investigating issues of gender than of coupling.

Flowing segments moving from period costume era ettiquette to present day schoolyard sectionals (the It girls, the Sports Jocks, the Squares, the Outsiders) transfered through from the opening onwards and there was always a constant pace across stage from left to right - signifying the passage of time, the journey from child to youth to adulthood - just that ever present movement that typifies growth.

I found the segments danced by the boys dynamic and interesting, at times dark and typically testosterone layered, but with enough creative technique and insight from the dancers to reveal that core of art and sensitivity that males on the surface sometimes choose to eschew.

The selection and choreography for the girls was pretty and at times melancholy, but I found a lot of the dancers seemed to be rather follow-the-leader in their movements - was this reflecting the stereotype that females are happy to go with the flow and are less inclined to rebel and display agressive movement then males? It would have been intriguing to see a few awkward, rebelling or emo edged girls expressing their individuality, but maybe I'm seeing conformity when I should really be intuiting camaraderie.

The schoolyard scenes were fun and relatable, with comic personalities giving us an insight into the dancers on stage. It's too easy sometimes to look at line and technique when appreciating dance and forgo the charisma of the performers.

I'm sure there were a lot of friends and family at the matinee I attended as the final scenes showing off in small groups or individually some amazing moves got the audience pumping and whooping it up - take that, Channel Ten! Look out for this year's class to graduate to an audition auditiorium for So You Think You Can Dance fame in the near future.

Looking forward to STEPS 21st birthday party in 2010!