The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2022 - Issue 31

bitetheatre As lab coat tosses the ball up and down in his hand, they mim- ic the motion in dance, and two more safari hat dancers enter and surround him. He, noticing their interest, takes centre stage and opens the ball to reveal the most piercing of lights to shine from it. Brilliant lighting effects turn it into pillars of light like a star beam. Here, the magic starts as the ball turns into a large white scarf. As they dance, the scarf magically dis- appears and reappears in one dancer’s hand or the other, but from nowhere near each other where the dancers can pass on the scarf. I love it! I’m mesmerised! That dancer was over there! How can it be so? They dance their feat to contain this notorious scarf that won’t be tamed into a jar, but the scarf seems to defeat their efforts each time. Then the scarf becomes most robust and longer, so the danc- ers have to dance offstage and back, holding this extra-long material piece of silk that seems to bowl them over and ren- der them powerless against its magical prowess. The dancers holding the silk material flew across the stage in a flurry of ribbons until the stage was covered in layers of silk. The cho- reography then cleverly utilises the strands of material as a dance prop. Despite the previous magic, this is my favourite part of their set, with the whole ensemble of ten dancers tell- ing their part of this shared story. At this moment of their set, I love the dramatic orange-pink lights staging, the imaginative choreography wittily using the prop, and the remarkable choice of Grand Theft Auto song by DJ TikTok they danced to. However, I wouldn't say I like how the magician's box that's left centre-stage is distracting my enjoyment of seeing the whole picture uninterrupted. I felt it unnecessary to be still sitting there. Three dancers become entangled in the layers, and they use their noggins to free one of them, with the rest returning to release the other two. Eventually, they find the end of this entanglement of silk and dance each end off the stage, clearing it—the audience jeers at this as they recognise the feat of the dancers to achieve that. Lab coat returns onto the stage with his silk scarf, magically turning it back into that golf ball. A safari hat dancer comes on, takes it from him, and runs off the stage, leaving him be- wildered. The lights briefly turn off, and when back on, he’s standing magically with a wand in his hands. The rest of the ensemble slowly walks back with their glow-in-the-dark masks and long glow sticks. He’s off! It’s pretty dramatic. They give a dance set incorporating their glow walking sticks for the next two minutes until the lab coat comes back on again. As they retreat, he appears with one of the walking sticks and performs magic to make it disappear and turn into a shower of tiny pieces of paper cascading to the floor as the light closes on him. But it’s not over yet as a beautiful piece of beat, and piano music starts. The light opens to lab coat amid the oth- er ten dancers, now dressed in all white: oversized tracksuits with beanie hats. Dancing in a more typical hip-hop style, the scene gives the impression that lab coat is orchestrating the dancers under his spell to an outro tune of Luv by Psalm. The trackies surround lab coat, and he performs one last classic magic trick turning the white scarf into a white dove that flies offstage, and again the light closes on them. Cue: Audience's roar of cheers like a football game! Like: Wow! https://www.breakinconvention.com