Dance @ THAT Festival

A youth festival would be quite poor without dance in it; after all, it is how many young people interact – in clubs, or in dance classes (or dare I say it, zumba?) THAT Festival brings two youthfully energetic companies to the fore.

9-2-5 / Heartbeats, performed as part of the Macrobert’s THAT festival, is a double bill by Bright Night International, featuring beatboxer Bigg Taj. Both pieces examine our boredom with daily life, and the desire to spice things up. The performers showcase their ability to be comical in a physical form, while also extremely versatile in style. Each movement is smooth and precise – this becomes obvious quite quickly from the entertaining and furiously fast chase regarding one piece of paper in the second part. 

On the other hand, Ponydance’s Anybody waitin’? takes the idea of going out specifically for the purpose of meeting someone, and turns it into an interactive dance performance. Hilarious, raunchy and quite an accurate depiction of a night out, with drinks spilt and awkward, almost aerobic dancing, Anybody waitin’ is not for audiences who don’t like interacting with performers up close and personal. It will leave your sides split with laughter, and a burning question in your mind: is that really what our ‘mating dance’ looks like? [Eric Karoulla]