First Published 4 Aug. 99

State High School and QUT Academy of the Arts, King George Square, Brisbane, 19-24 July 1999

A quick glance around at the pimply adolescent faces that made up the audience made me feel old, very old. So I whipped out the dark glasses and bemoaned the fact that twenty-one just doesn't cut it at youth festivals anymore. But the audience demographics weren't really surprising considering composition of the dance piece, directed by Kirsten Bell, Jimbo, Shanno, Cazza, Shazza and Yuan Yuan ... Go Dancing.

Jimbo et al. ... Go Dancing allowed an enormous number of high school-aged students to be involved in the production of a public performance. Six hundred students are listed in the programme, with a hundred of these appearing on stage in large group dances linked by the common theme of preparing for a school dance. Each dance group dealt with aspects of this theme including asking parents' permission to attend the dance, dressing up, identifying with certain subcultures, predance coupling, girls' toilet gossip and the actual dance. These sections were blended together with voice-overs from teachers and parents (which would have been more effective if the voices were adults speaking), defining the boundaries of acceptable dance behaviour. In a sense, these voice overs and certain aspects of the choreographed movement highlighted the broader youth issue of generational differences and societal conformity at home and school.

This issue was played out well in the first section of the performance, asking permission to go to the dance. Parent-child roles were defined through costuming and iconic movement based on various occupations in the workplace and home. The conflict presented was exemplified in another section with parents bopping along to eighties music viewed disdainfully by their embarrassed offspring. Later at the dance, a teacher attempting to participate in the younger generation's version of spasmodic jerking was watched with raised (pierced) eyebrows. The Golden Gate bridge wouldn't have crossed this generational gap. Aspects of a number of the dances also pointed to the issue of societal conformity. Dancers expressed themselves as members of various subcultures such as homeboy, grunge or dance, using music associated with these subcultures to represent resistance to parental and societal constraints. Interestingly enough, by presenting these subcultures en masse with similar motifs in dress and dance, these forms of alternative culture appeared quite conventional. Conflict was replaced with conformity, conformity to a chosen subculture. Sadly, the intended message was lost.

The choreography and dancing itself was quite poor considering some of the high school dance productions produced for the Rock Eisteddfod. This standard was no doubt due to the enormous and indiscriminate number of students involved, suggesting that Jimbo et al. ... Go Dancing was more concerned with participation and group work rather than performance. In this respect, Jimbo et al. ... Go Dancing was highly successful. Most of the dancers seemed to enjoy themselves, often breaking out of their roles and grinning at friends in the audience. The audience had as much fun and had no qualms about disregarding audience etiquette by vocally egging their friends on.

In the end, it is a shame that the adults involved in the production didn't allow the students to choose their own vehicle for exploring issues of generational differences and conformity. There was an obvious incongruity between the high school dance scenario and the presentation of subcultures. High school dances are very much a thing of the past with little relevance for modern high school life. Moreover, the dancing associated with homeboy, grunge and dance cultures and their music is an individual or group affair. The predance coupling scene seemed somewhat out of place in this context, perhaps expressing someone else's whimsical remembrances of by-gone days or Happy Days episodes.

In all, Jimbo et al. ... Go Dancing would not have appealed to the hardened dance critic expecting an abstract clever treatment of youth issues. Instead, it provided a platform for high school-aged youth to express their concerns and in doing so, have fun. In this respect, this performance was basically a successful dance piece about high school, produced by high school students (with a little adult intervention) for high school students (and the occasional outsider writing a review).

Details

Collaborative State High School and QUT Academy of the Arts effort.
Director: Kirsten Bell (QUT).
King George Square, Brisbane, 19-24 July 1999.



Bookmark this article: