Beat N' Move Euphoric

Presented by: Collaboration The Project

Venue: Theatreworks, South Yarra

Reviewer: Robbie Carmellotti

Date Reviewed: Friday 6th March 2009

Brought to the stage by Collaboration - The Project, ‘Beat N Move Euphoric’ is the 2^nd production by this unique Melbourne based company. Their purpose is to provide a means for young Australian artists to creatively express themselves and grow as performers. This group have managed to get together some of Melbourne’s leading professional dancers and mixed in some fantastic up and coming talent to put on a non-stop dance extravaganza of Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Lyrical and Hip Hop into a fast moving and well paced 2 act show.

The storyline which was intertwined told the story of Tyler Samson, who is a dancer that has taken to getting a desk job, but can’t stop dancing. We are supposed to see this show as a day in the life of Tyler.  Tyler is portrayed by Bradley Griffith. Bradley is a superb dancer who has a huge future ahead of him. It seems he is a natural, and this show obviously gave him great ground to demonstrate his talents. Dancing aside, I don’t think Bradley was of a believable stage age to play this role, his appearance was of a 15-17 year old, and it was difficult to take him seriously as a full time worker hanging up his dance shoes. Possible setting the show in a school or Uni would have solved this problem?

Continual standouts in the show were Mark Hill and Shane Preston, who are both professional performers and the tap choreographers for the show. Special mention must go to these two as every time they were on stage they ripped up the floor and had the audience eating out of their palms. The show could have easily been based around these two, as they seemed to have just as much stage time as ‘Tyler’ and were certainly exceptional with what they did. They easily performed the best tap I’ve seen in a Non Professional show.

It was great to see a mix of professional dancers appearing in this ensemble such as Leah Lim (Miss Saigon Australian tour) and Kristine Holter (Cats, Norway). Both stood out immensely.

Direction and Choreography was noted as being by Paul Malek, but choreography credits also need to go out to Kim Adam, Adrian Ricks, Danii DeRose, Mark Hill and Shane Preston. There were some very clever and funny directional points in the show, though I’m not sure who is responsible for them as the whole show was choreography, and it wasn’t listed who is responsible for what. So I guess this is where Paul gets the credit even if he wasn’t responsible. Some things didn’t quite make clear sense though and would need to be addressed if this show was to be marketed to a much wider range, such as, what era was the show set it? There was such a vast array of outfits from so many different eras that I had no idea what time frame I was watching. Also considering the clever and unique choreography used, I think more suitable entrances and exits for large ensemble numbers could have been better. Most of the time it was “Ensemble on” “Ensemble off”.  There were also aspects of the story that were confusing or unnecessary, but I’m willing to forgive that as it was a dance-icle therefore it doesn’t need to make perfect sense.

Vocals were provided by Laura McCulloch, Tanya Mamo and Gemma Purdy. Laura was superb in everything that she did; she is obviously a true professional. She is currently playing the role of Jennyanydots and often appears as Grizzabella and Jellylorum in the current Asian tour of CATS. She really did standout vocally and unfortunately made the other 2 vocalists seem a bit unnecessary and it was clear they were following her; they had lovely voices but couldn’t match her power or confidence. I do think the vocalists should have managed to learn their dialogue rather than reading it from a very well disguised script.

Toby Bender and Barney Medlin have been listed as the composers for the show, and a truly magnificent job they did. The music was powerful, clever and relevant to the dancing also not overdone; it was performed with a simple 5 piece band. I commend you both on an outstanding job well done.

This is what community theatre is all about, Talented people passing on knowledge and genuinely taking an interest in helping people develop and inspire their passion to grow. I would recommend everyone pre book to see the next venture by Collaboration -The Project.

Robbie is a theatre addict, with a passion for Directing, Choreographing and Performing. He has played roles such as Mike and Greg- CHORUS LINE, Mungojerrie- CATS, Bernardo- WEST SIDE STORY, The Cat- HONK & King Herod-JSC. He comes from a background in Latin Dancesport where he works as a full time competitor, teacher, lecturer and adjudicator. Career highlights include representing Australia at the World Latin, winning the Thailand and Taipei Internationals while touring Asia, as well as many National Championships spanning 15 years. He has worked with companies such as Whitehorse, Nova, Williamstown Little Theatre, Windmill, DTC, and Fab Nobs. He is currently directing and choreographing ‘The Wedding Singer’ with Fab Nob’s theatre.

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