Betwixt | Pink Matter
Mad Dance’s inaugral festival premiered in May 2021. Pitched as a celebration of Queensland’s street dance scene, it brought together local talents to wow crowds at home after they’ve conquered stages and comps around the world. Betwixt premiered as part of a double bill with Peach Papaya by GoldenCoastline.
Following the flashy and thrilling performance from GoldenCoastline, Pink Matter took to the stage to steer the night toward introspection and matters of the soul. Betwixt invited the audience into the ‘In Between’: a space where words connected to movements and movements connected to music to tell unfinished stories to unsuspecting listeners. Through an enthralling combination of spoken-word poetry and dance, Pink Matter produced a fresh storytelling experience that pulled at the heart and compelled the mind.
The show followed the stories of four characters performed by Wanida Serce, Amy Zhang, Joshua Taliani and Monika Stojevski. Each character’s account was of a personal struggle they’ve faced in their life and the way dance nurtured them through those times. If they were lost, dance gave them belonging. If they were trapped, dance freed them from their cage. Each character brought to the stage with them their own feelings and their own expression of movement. Wanida was wild, and Joshua was fierce. Amy flowed, while Monika was soft. As they took their turns sharing their hurts and healings, Huda Fadlelmawla guided the audience with powerful oration, the beats of her poetics as impactful as the bass beneath my feet. “Dear future lover, I want to lie in bed with you fully clothed and more naked than I’ve ever been,” she said, as Joshua vogued across the stage, his character stuck in a cycle of lust over love.
Image + cover image: Janna Imperial
For the audience’s part there was a funny, yet endearing, clash of languages as Betwixt converged two cultures into one. Poets, who gently click their fingers in appreciation for a verse; and dancers, who shout when they are hyped by something great. The poetry fans would occasionally click their fingers when seeing movement they liked, not quite delivering the sort of energy dancers love to receive. While dance fans shouted during an excellent verse by Huda, accidentally drowning her out. The endearing part was upon seeing these two cultures quickly learn each other’s language and adapt.
While the show’s strength lies in the stories told through the dancers and narrator, it does take a while to get there with a slow, lengthy preamble. Four bodies lie on a stage as sounds of the wilderness and a soft rhythm play overhead, the bodies occasionally matching the music. This part felt slightly drawn out, as the meaning was unclear, and there was no character to relate to. Though, once the characters were properly introduced my attention was fixed through to curtain call.
All in all, Betwixt is an emotionally engaging and thought-provoking piece blending movement, words, and music to appreciate the power that dance has to connect, heal, free, and love.
