Fringe dance and physical theatre reviews: By A Thread and more

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 25 August

With so much conflict in the world, it’s easy to forget that our fundamental role as humans is to care for and support each other. It’s kept us alive for millennia, and it lies at the core of this wonderful new show from Melbourne-based One Fell Swoop Circus.

In most circus shows, routines carried out on an aerial rope comprise just one small part of the action. Yet here, an entire hour is devoted to the humble rope and its many uses. Stretched up and across the top of the stage by pulleys, this long, white prop serves many practical purposes. The seven performers climb up it, swing from it, twist it, walk on it and wrap themselves up in it. But the rope also forms the centre of the metaphor at play here - that each of our actions affects others, whether we’re onstage or not.

It can be easy to sit back and watch a circus act unfold, oblivious of who’s doing it or the mechanisms behind it. During one humorous scene, each artist shouts out their role: “base” (holding the rope down), “climbing” or “helping”, using each other’s first names to personalise the bodies at work. Risk and trust go hand in hand here, because if somebody lets go of the rope while you’re 20 feet up, there are very real consequences.

In amongst all this beautiful support is the output, which comes thick and fast, with no padding. If there’s a way to use the rope to demonstrate their acrobatic strength and agility, they’ve found it. A particular highlight comes when two performers hang from above, holding and protecting each other in myriad ways and creating one of the most tender moments you’ll see in a circus.

Kelly Apter

The Land of Beat ★★★★

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 24 August

Tradition and authenticity rub shoulders with modern-day wit and charm, in this dynamic show from South Korea’s Serotonin Art Company. It’s an apt name for a group that knows how to bring the ‘feel good’ factor to audiences of all ages.

Opening with a solo, a lone drummer stands with his back to the crowd as he pounds a large upright barrel drum. When the light catches his muscles, we’re left in no doubt as to the strength required to create such a sound. With the Korean flag projected onto the tight drum skin, and the performer dressed in traditional costume, the stage looks set for a serious hour of ceremonial drumming. Yet with each passing routine, the mood gets lighter and lighter, until the whole room is clapping and singing along.

Five performers work their way through a range of rhythm instruments, gently tapping the hand-held sogo drum and banging speedily on the hourglass-shaped janggu. Never missing a beat, their sticks fly over a row of barrel drums with synchronised precision, building to a crescendo that gets pulses racing on-stage and off.

Even the traditional Korean ribbon hat, often twirled with delicacy and grace, takes on a renewed power here. With a tiny flick of the head, its wearer sends the ribbon flying around the stage, whisking it back and forth as drums pound around him.

Similarly, the traditional plate spinning act is given a comedic new look, with a range of unlikely items, from an umbrella to a fan, pulled out and put to good use. Throughout, the performers are deadly serious about executing their skill but wonderfully playful during each interaction with the audience.

Kelly Apter

Two Right Feet ★★★★

Just the Tonic at The Mash House (Venue 288) until 17 August

There’s something mesmeric about watching a pair of feet tap dancing. Whether you’ve pulled on a pair of tap shoes yourself (and know how fiendishly tricky some of the steps are) or just admired it from afar, the sound and vision of a well-danced tap routine is one of life’s good things. Especially, when the feet inside those shoes belong to Australian dancer Tommy J Egan.

Taught by his mother from a young age, Egan’s love affair with tap is deep-rooted. Not only has he spent most of his life honing his technique to a remarkable level, Egan’s passion for the artform’s history is palpable. So alongside his own choreography and improvisation, both of which are superb, he demonstrates work by some of the genre’s big-hitters.

As an outsider looking in, it can be hard to discern different tap dance styles, which is why Two Right Feet is not just entertaining but fascinating. Egan takes us back in time to the glory days of tap dancing, executing short routines that once graced the stage and screen. By performing them consecutively, we instantly see the unique stamp each dancer put on their work – ending with Egan’s all-time hero, Gregory Hines.

Grabbing the microphone between dances, Egan shares his own story and theirs, with wit and charm. Then, in an exciting moment which presumably changes each day, he invites up some fellow tappers performing at the Fringe. Again, seeing different styles side-by-side affords a new appreciation for the way dancers approach the same steps.

As is often the case at the Fringe, Two Right Feet takes place with limited production values. With a touch more razzle dazzle (and perhaps some visuals of the dancers Egan namechecks), this would be a truly splendid hour.

Kelly Apter

Imago ★★★

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 24 August

Trust is an essential component of any relationship, and never more so than in the circus. If you’re dangling high in the air, and the only thing stopping you from falling is your fellow performer, you’d best have faith in their ability. But what happens when the person on the other end of the rope is not just a colleague, but your spouse?

Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes (both former Cirque du Soleil artists) explored this concept when they created Imago. They then handed the show over to another married couple, Eowynn and Isak Enquist, who have made it their own.

Performed on a custom-made rope apparatus, this intimate duet is a blend of technical strength and aerial skill, combined with deep emotional intensity. As the couple push and pull against and away from each other, wrap their limbs protectively, or yearn for brief moments of separation, the complexities of a close relationship are played out.

All of which is engaging and thought-provoking, but the dim lighting design does the piece no favours. A brief moment of illumination towards the end feels like a breath of fresh air after so much darkness. A little more of that would have brought us closer to the action.

Kelly Apter

Tales from Your Queer Elder ★

Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 16 August

If the Fringe is a young person’s playground, no one has told seventysomething plus-sized performer Lucia August, a longtime dance fan-turned-dance therapist, who has returned intermittently over the years and is here to represent for the bigger, older women.

One can imagine August making friends wherever she goes, such are her warm vibes. Unfortunately, the three pieces she performs here - two old, one premiere - feature vague, hesitant and stilted storytelling and unremarkable movement of the sort which might pass muster in a dance therapy class but needs far more rigour to make an impact on the world’s biggest arts stage.

Fiona Shepherd