Beautiful Noise at the Brisbane Festival

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Mon 05 Sep 2011 - Sat 10 Sep 2011

Beautiful Noise is a collaboration between Brisbane's Raw Dance Company and Sydney's Legs on the Wall . Featuring four dancers and four acrobats, it is a mish-mash of tap, hip hop, aerial acrobatics and gymnastics set against the looming backdrop of Brisbane Powerhouse's brick exterior wall.

As soon as Legs on the Wall abseil onto the stage, you can't help but sit up and take notice. Highlights are a beautiful mid air dance between two aerialists and a routine involving a tiny, muscled female acrobat performing incredible stunts on a handstand platform and later, from a suspended chair.

Raw Dance's most notable contribution to the show is the tap sequences. Tapping is impressive when synchronised and at high speed, but on the whole, the aerial component is far more interesting than the dancing. Even gimmicks like having taps on their hands cannot compete with the majesty of the aerial work. But when they combined the two in the finale, with the four harnessed dancers tapping at right angles to the wall, it was worth the wait.

Beautiful Noise has no plot. In some male/female partner routines, you can infer some sort of relationship but nothing significant. As for the theme of 'Beautiful Noise', well, a performer wore headphones at one stage and the tapping certainly made a lot of noise, but I wouldn't describe it as beautiful. There was also an attempt at group beat boxing that didn't quite hit the mark.

Beautiful Noise lacks cohesion and feels like a whole lot of routines tacked together. But you can't help admire the performers' skills. It's simply a case of the whole being less than the sum of the parts.

#theatre
#outdoor
#brisbane_city
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!date 05/09/2011 -- 10/09/2011
%wnbrisbane