Watch This Space

BATS Theatre, Wellington

14/09/2006 - 16/09/2006

Dance Your Socks Off

Production Details


Conceived, devised, designed and performed by Milo Haigh, Sherilee Kahui and Jake Preval
direction by Hannah Clarke
with musicians Asami Doko, Dan Hannah and Justin Taulu


Have you ever wondered what would happen if three hot, young actors kidnapped three talented jazz musicians and forced them to listen to really bad hip hop until they agreed to collaborate on a completely original, vibrant, entertaining (yet thought provoking) piece of Dance Theatre?

Guess you will just have to Watch This Space.

Conceived, devised, designed and performed by Milo Haigh, Sherilee Kahui and Jake Preval as their contribution to DYSO! 2006.

Season: Thurs 14 – Sat 16 September
Time: 9pm
Tickets: $14 full / $12 concession & groups 8+

book now! book@bats.co.nz



Dance ,


More please!

Review by Deirdre Tarrant 20th Sep 2006

So far this is the stand out success and surprise of the festival. Humour, clarity, imaginative choreographically and with tight direction by Hannah Clarke, the three performers simply take the stage and the audience on an episodic adventure of their own ideas and responses.

Clever comment and social sensitivity as well as ebullient energy and an almost farcical take on their own personas make for a hugely entertaining show. The Happy Valley Tea Party, the reverse strip, finger-licking fish’n chips, the red stilettos, the golf driving range, the explosive piñata emptying lots of the ‘green stuff’ and the ritualistic Morris dance that ensues were sharply defined and highlights in a show that was slick and perfectly integrated with the excellent sound played by an original music making trio (Asami Doko, Dan Hannah and Justin Taulu) who seemed to be having as much fun as the performers.

Milo Haigh defined space with every lengthy limb. Sherilee Kahui managed to make undies seductive. Jake Preval never missed a loose-limbed movement and his sense of timing was wonderful to watch.

Great dancing and great fun. More please. 

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Well worth watching

Review by John Smythe 14th Sep 2006

They claim to be actors anti-dancing but their physical prowess needs no excuse. Watch This Space is full of pleasurable surprises.

Under the co-op brand of BabyshadS, performers Milo Haigh, Sherilee Kahui and Jake Preval have collaborated with each other, musicians Asami Doko, Dan Hannah and Justin Taulu, and director Hannah Clarke to devise 50-odd minutes of knockabout physical theatre that puts a smile on our faces from their first entrance and leaves it there, only to interrupted by outright laughter.

With wonderfully flexible bodies and a range of flesh-coloured masks that subtly change their facial features, the performers people the stage in ways that seem wacky, verging on Dada at times, yet resonate with recognisable character and behaviour.

Chooks, too, make an early appearance. Aloneness, friendship, love, jealousy, fishing, golf, corporate greed and individual lust for money drive the sometimes bruising, other times lyrical and often sexy scenarios.

To take just one example, a banal phone conversation is juxtaposed with a tumbling, entwining pas-de-deux that manifests a fantasy that is unlikely to happen in reality. Or has their chat escalated into phone sex? Take your pick.

With similar ingenuity the three musicians interact, punctuate and lay the tracks for a very idiosyncratic journey through bizarre yet beautiful imaginations. Their very brief season is well worth watching and deserves to sell out.

Comments

sharon kahui September 15th, 2006

i may be the mum but i thought it was the best thing i had seen for ages really well done

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