Wayfinder review: Dancenorth may just be the hit of Brisbane Festival

Like the North Queensland Cowboys, Dancenorth are hitting a sweet spot and their Brisbane show is positively transcendental, writes Phil Brown.

Dancenorth’s Wayfinder could be the must-watch event of the Brisbane Festival.

Thinking about what was the best show at last year’s Brisbane Festival I would have to say it was Townsville-based contemporary dance company Dancenorth’s RED. Dancers disrobing in a giant deflating bubble … what’s not to love about that?

But could they do it again this year while keeping theirs clothes on? The company is on a roll, like the North Queensland Cowboys. What’s going on in Townsville? Must be something in the water.

The answer is a resounding YES and everyone coming out of Wednesday’s opening night at Brisbane Powerhouse reckoned they had just seen the hit of the festival. Mind you it was unclear what we had just seen.

Contemporary dance is a bit like that. So is Circus and Circa’s Yaron Lifschitz once told me in an interview once that he reckons asking what it’s about is the wrong question and I kind of agree.

Dancenorth’s Wayfinder is an otherworldly Brisbane Festival triumph

All I know is that from the moment the lights hit the stage in the Powerhouse Theatre Dancenorth’s new show Wayfinder kicked into high gear and stayed there. All seven of the Townsville-based company’s dancers were on stage in this work created by that dynamic duo of Kyle Page and Amber Haines.

It’s a colourful show and put that down to the collaboration with artist Hiromi Tango who designed it and created a kind of moving wool installation that the dancers get caught up in, literally. Oh what a tangled web they weave, and an intriguing one, as they ravel and unravel 65 km of wool and dance with such energy and joy that there is not one dull moment in the whole show. Mind you there are some meditative moments too when the dancers become like bodhisattvas at one stage.

Dancenorth cranking in Wayfinder.

At that point in the show a word popped into my mind, a word that I would use to describe this, bless them, 55 minute happening. Transcendental. It’s a word from the 1960s but it suits this incredible production which has the most amazing soundscape by Byron J. Scullin who collaborated with Melbourne band Hiatus Coyote to create music and sound that goes from mellow to full funk at times. The lighting design by Niklas Pajanti is way cool too.

And this is a show the audience gets involved in by way of orbs, or pearls they call them, which were placed on seats and then passed around. They emit light and sound at various times and are quite otherworldly. I was the keeper of an orb for a time as there was one on my seat when we sat down. I felt like a chosen one!

But I didn’t bogart, it as we used to say.

The wool used on stage was knitted in community sittings overseen by Hiromi Tango and like her work Wayfinder is a celebration of heart, body, connection and community. But words really fail me in trying to accurately describe what we all saw Wednesday night.

Hell, see it for yourself and you tell me.

Wayfinder is on in the Powerhouse Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse until Saturday.