The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2023 - Issue 34

bitetheatre safety and home in another country on an inadequate dingy boat. They experienced ship- wrecks by turbulent seas, resulting in tragedy due to insufficient safety equipment. The emo- tional dancing of these sets took hold when our eyes followed the dancers across the stage; it was like they were inscribing sentimental words to the circumstances across our souls. Act One included music from Desert Rose, If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Fields Of Gold, King of Pain, Fragile, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Invisi- ble Sun, Inshallah, A Thousand Years, Shadows Of Pain, Every Breath You Take and Message In A Bottle. These songs, alongside the exquisite dancing of leaps, twirls, pointies, spins, gra- cious lines, breakdance, tumbles, swoops and cannons, told the first part of this story that left the audience feeling as though we had taken that journey from the happiness of the commu- nity and loved to the chaotic voyage. The interval left us yearning for hope, a resolution, and curiosity about what would happen. Act Two opened with the castaway group waking up shorebound in a foreign land and the sorrow from the loss of some of their community, highlighting the effects of this situation on our psyche through heartfelt movements of doom, gloom and mournful sadness, yet en- twined with a shimmer of hope. Situations being captured and dumped into Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) were explored through the initial sets of this act. Being caught up with the underworld following abduction through addiction and sex slavery, oppression, despair, and bribery, but always holding onto hope whilst maintaining integrity were situations highlighted and reflected through the clever performance dance movements. Memories of their home were boisterously thwarted as each integrated into a new commu- nity. We witnessed three overwhelming, trialling journeys to finding new homes as refugees. However, shimmers of happiness and support were interspersed into these final sets as deter- mination, negotiation, reunion, finding love, acceptance, and resettlements happened for the three main characters. This section featured dance sets to Spirits In The Material World, If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Brand New Day, Love Is The Seventh Wave, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, Walking On The Moon, Be Still My Beating Heart, Englishman In New York, Shape Of My Heart, The Bed’s Too Big Without You, Roxanne, So Lonely, Fields of Gold, The Empty Chair and They Dance Alone that took us on a whirlwind of sentiments ranging from hope, happiness, anger, despair, and relief.