Mayfest is an annual festival in Bristol that aims to bring exciting new theatre to the city. This is my review of Dance Marathon.
Dance Marathon
Bluemouth inc
The Trinity Centre, 19th May 2015, Part of Mayfest.
Dance Marathon promises gruelling fun, the audience gets to play with the idea of duration and exhaustion, of endurance. Of course, it also involves dancing, a lot of dancing, which makes for a really fun combination.
The audience were shown into the bar area of the Trinity Centre and given numbered bibs and asked to enter into some bureaucracy- form filling. The fields included “Special Skills” and “Have you ever forgotten anything?” after the form filling we waited to be shown in. This is when the anxiety kicked in. There were people in sportswear. They were young, really young and fit. I saw someone tuck an asthma inhaler into her spandex running leggings. There was trash talk. People were in it to win it. The idea of a dance marathon had definitely hit a competitive nerve.
The first instruction was to find our feet. That is, the numbered pairs of feet on the floor (a la how to waltz diagrams). The feet were arranged in couples. We were told not to worry if we weren’t with the people we arrived with; we would get to change later.
So, the games began, we were told we have to keep our feet moving at all times and we would be eliminated if our knees touch the floor. Some disco is played, we duly danced. Someone is called up to exhibit their skill, we applauded. We danced, another skilled audience member is called up- he can unicycle, they have a unicycle, he unicycled. We are led by the MC into a routine called The Madison, it gets faster and faster, dancers dropped off one by one, leaving only a small group of the young spandex people. It has become obvious that these are trained dancers planted in the audience. As the night progressed, from time to time a dance routine emerges and we are left watching a usually contemporary routine, twisting bodies and expansive gestures.
The eliminations began to roll in, not for failing to move feet, or for falling on our knees in exhaustion, but for failing to answer trivia questions and other arbitrary deciders. The losers are then invited to a stage to endure an exit interview, broadcast on a screen behind the band and on a ‘glitter ball’ projection screen in the middle of the hall. After the first break and interval, there are still over a hundred dancers in the game. The eliminations ramped up, decided through a Derby, a race around the hall with your partner, the last eight couples over the line are out. There are also periods of reflection- a poem by Little Jimmy a cast member, is read as one of his ‘special skills’. A long monologue at the end showed the seedier underside to this spectacle, but it was hard to give it full attention as the endorphins rushed and the muscles cooled.
The use of Dance Marathon is fertile ground- the original marathons of the 1930s that took place during the Great Depression in America, promised cash prizes for the last couple standing. With timed breaks, these could stretch out to weeks. They were very much a spectator sport and the MCs of the day would often exploit the personal situation of the contestants in order to humiliate them and entertain the audience. So there is a level of this in the show, the cards we filled in are mined for information from time to time and there are moments when the cast are lost in poetic reflection. This is not always seamlessly integrated and the combination of hyped up participants and reflective spectacle did not always entirely work, or at least, not for me. However, as a fun night out where the audience can truly lose itself in the dance and have a bigger part of the performing pie than usual, it certainly achieves a big thumbs up.
Dance Marathon
Bluemouth inc
The Trinity Centre, 19th May 2015, Part of Mayfest.
Dance Marathon promises gruelling fun, the audience gets to play with the idea of duration and exhaustion, of endurance. Of course, it also involves dancing, a lot of dancing, which makes for a really fun combination.
The audience were shown into the bar area of the Trinity Centre and given numbered bibs and asked to enter into some bureaucracy- form filling. The fields included “Special Skills” and “Have you ever forgotten anything?” after the form filling we waited to be shown in. This is when the anxiety kicked in. There were people in sportswear. They were young, really young and fit. I saw someone tuck an asthma inhaler into her spandex running leggings. There was trash talk. People were in it to win it. The idea of a dance marathon had definitely hit a competitive nerve.
The first instruction was to find our feet. That is, the numbered pairs of feet on the floor (a la how to waltz diagrams). The feet were arranged in couples. We were told not to worry if we weren’t with the people we arrived with; we would get to change later.
So, the games began, we were told we have to keep our feet moving at all times and we would be eliminated if our knees touch the floor. Some disco is played, we duly danced. Someone is called up to exhibit their skill, we applauded. We danced, another skilled audience member is called up- he can unicycle, they have a unicycle, he unicycled. We are led by the MC into a routine called The Madison, it gets faster and faster, dancers dropped off one by one, leaving only a small group of the young spandex people. It has become obvious that these are trained dancers planted in the audience. As the night progressed, from time to time a dance routine emerges and we are left watching a usually contemporary routine, twisting bodies and expansive gestures.
The eliminations began to roll in, not for failing to move feet, or for falling on our knees in exhaustion, but for failing to answer trivia questions and other arbitrary deciders. The losers are then invited to a stage to endure an exit interview, broadcast on a screen behind the band and on a ‘glitter ball’ projection screen in the middle of the hall. After the first break and interval, there are still over a hundred dancers in the game. The eliminations ramped up, decided through a Derby, a race around the hall with your partner, the last eight couples over the line are out. There are also periods of reflection- a poem by Little Jimmy a cast member, is read as one of his ‘special skills’. A long monologue at the end showed the seedier underside to this spectacle, but it was hard to give it full attention as the endorphins rushed and the muscles cooled.
The use of Dance Marathon is fertile ground- the original marathons of the 1930s that took place during the Great Depression in America, promised cash prizes for the last couple standing. With timed breaks, these could stretch out to weeks. They were very much a spectator sport and the MCs of the day would often exploit the personal situation of the contestants in order to humiliate them and entertain the audience. So there is a level of this in the show, the cards we filled in are mined for information from time to time and there are moments when the cast are lost in poetic reflection. This is not always seamlessly integrated and the combination of hyped up participants and reflective spectacle did not always entirely work, or at least, not for me. However, as a fun night out where the audience can truly lose itself in the dance and have a bigger part of the performing pie than usual, it certainly achieves a big thumbs up.