By - 3 Mar 2011
"NEIL Ieremia's latest production in collaboration with Black Grace UrbanYOUTHMovement opened Auckland Festival's 2011 dance programme last night in fine style, combining exuberant, disciplined high energy, technically demanding full-out dancing with in-your-face social commentary."
By Raewyn Whyte
Read this review on NZHerald.co.nz
Who ... Who ... Who Are You ? is the refrain that threads
through the work. No direct answers appear to be given.
Words aside, on the basis of the performance delivered with
individual flair by the youthful ensemble, they're undeniably fast,
fit, talented, tireless, disciplined, self-motivated, committed,
and driven dancers who want to create a future which is not plagued
by the issues raised in this performance.
Who Are You? is somewhat darker and more hard hitting
than earlier UYM productions, closer to the bone.
Some of the content is utterly literal - chilling examples
factually narrated about 14 and 15 year olds involved in rape and
other sexual activities way beyond their emotional maturity.
Some is presented in a show-and-tell combo - we are told that
fighting has become a socially desirable activity among New Zealand
teenage girls in particular, and we see social factions facing off,
the rapid escalation of antagonism from name calling and general
bitchiness to pushing and shoving and hairpulling to full body
tackles and out and out brawling.
But the most compelling content is wordless and bathos-filled
when the dancing follows an arc from a quiet party with a few
drinks, to the variously disposed inebriated partiers, to
alcohol-fuelled drivers and passengers who end up as bodies
scattered across the stage.
The coda that follows feels very much anti-climactic."