Rhythmology | Ty Goddard
Ty Goddard returns with their second iteration of Rhythmology this time in the New Benner Theatre of Metro Arts, West End. I was elated when I saw that this production was returning as part of Mad Dance Festival, the second time running Street-Dance showcase bringing to the stage a huge array of talent from across Meanjin. Rhythmology no exception to this and it’s a pleasure to see more and more from these sophisticated queer POC creatives.
Having seen the first show of Rhythmology when it debuted at Backbone Youth Arts space in November of last year in East Brisbane. I had the fortune of interviewing Ty beforehand and as often the case when creatives get together, rainbows appear. You can read that here. That time around I was left flabbergasted at the impact, pace and quality of this emerging production. Second time around I left feeling stunned at the slickness of choreography, the blending of multidisciplinary performance, timing, and POC excellence once again sheening in the spotlight. There was a lot of growth and clear directive since it’s one night premiere in November of last year. This one upsold every element - fiercely.
These grassroots beginnings a streak of dramaturgical genius blossoming to fill a large theatre coupled with all the bells and whistles that AV can offer, with the audience in bleacher seating. The new direction from the group soundtracked by Music Producer DIMES aka Emmett Goddard. Brother Ty shares love for his brother Emmett in a recent social media post:
‘Thank you for never making me feel ashamed to be myself, right from when we were kids. You allowed me to play in my fantasy and no matter what, always stayed by my side.’
Ty returns Rhythmology reformed and reimagined both healthy signs of reflection and building upon what was. I saw these attributes repeated in it’s focussed construction of group work, intertwined participatory embellishments, urban couture and costuming with ambience provided through block coloured lighting dazzling around those dancers with gravitational pull. I was yelling and cheering from my seat at all of it, the unapologetic sexiness of ethnic excellence, queer positivity, body positivity all being showcased by these beautiful humans, doing beautiful things. Inclusivity is sexy according to Rhythmology.
Rhythmology held me in celebration of R&B, Dance, Identity and Queerness in these new urbanised settings. The diaspora recreating and reclaiming space in a way that’s uniquely their own, made for their own. A hole that desperately needed filling, thankyou Ty for doing your part in closing that gap. It felt like family up there. It felt like everything I missed about the 90’s. The music, the dance moves, the brownness, the mixtapes.
Rhythmology’s personnel largely returned from the first show with the inclusion of a few more faces that I’d seen with sister arts collectives, House of Alexander and Thicc Shake. The drag team consisted of Evangeline, Crimson Coco, Luna Thicc, Freya Armani and Zaia Bond. Dancers Kaiyah Topia, Bailey Strothman and London Aukuoso. Choreographers and Dancers Dakota Hannington, Joshua Taliani and Jeanya Rush. Vocalists Garrett Lyon and Cheyanne Manila. Music Production and musicianship from Emmett Goddard. An absolute powerhouse of a cast all currently based in Meanjin. WTF.
Show stealers for me are so hard to choose in this work. I have no favourites. Never could. Shouldn’t. But……… If I was to pick the ones that made me blush the most, this would be my shortlist in order they appeared:
Solo work from Freya Armani with high intensity drag queening fitness: Freya provided effortless lip syncing and dance floor agility to ‘Stand Up’ by Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo.
Starting off solo Dakota Hannington’s swells to Nicki Minaj’s ‘Moment 4 Life’ in a stunning white bomber jacket dress reaching their ankles, later undressed with group gallantry from Crimson, Josh, Freya, Jeanya and Kaiyah.
Luna Thicc’s troupe of 5 bounce to Ari Lennox’s song ‘Pressure’, applying sprinklings of cheekiness throughout, Luna’s such a delectable performer who holds their own. Love this Queen!
London Aukuoso struts out with 90’s club anthem ‘Gotta get you home’ by Foxy Brown and Blackstreet. This piece had me struggling to keep my legs shut, Lols. The group support for London on stage had their hands luring the slipperiness, splaying shirtless torsos on the projection overhead. Wet!
The stellar group sway on Ari Lennox’s ‘BMO’ had the whole cast on stage with Coco Crimson and Garret Lyon out in the front lined progression. Garret pops his moves like trigger warnings. I love the energy he brings to everything he does. Garret later swoons us with a stand and deliver slow jam.
AV projections included text that broke apart the essence of R&B into deliciously memorable chunks, the elements of a song Beat, The elements of a song Lyric, the elements of Song Melody. For all my brown diaspora that grew up in brizzy, remember BT’s (Brisbane Tavern), the Gig, LQ’s (Lexington Queen), these were the clubs we frequented back in the 90’s. Remember loving so many R&B songs waiting for them to be played on the radio, so you could hold down play + record at the same time and tape over your old stuff. Remember playing those tapes over and over again and trying to work out the lyrics? Pressing pause after each phrase, not really hearing the lyrics coherently and making them up often getting it close, but usually wrong. Sometimes embarrassingly so. Remember drumming the beats on the underside of QR train carriage seats and walls while your cousin busted some sweet freestyle and then your super shy cousin sings the hook, and everyone melts. It brought back all those moments for me. Rhythmology needs more stage, and I bet there’s a million me’s still needing to see this. Rhythmology part 3 please, soon? Ty and team ya’ll had me holding my head a little higher on the way out. Thankyou!
