Less than a year after their debut performance at the Adelaide Festival Centre, The Australian Calisthenics Theatre Company have refined their new art form, delivering a slick Fringe tribute to legendary musical theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh, with the aid of accomplished tenor JD Smith.
A driving ambition of The Australian Calisthenics Dance Company is to create opportunities for professional career progression for the thousands of young dancers who spend their childhoods developing their agility, poise and flexibility. With 'Encore & Applause', they have realised this ambition; the show fits neatly alongside the abundance of other variety and circus shows you can see at venues like The Vault at Fool’s Paradise.
In ACTC’s first outing last year, there was elite stage production and dazzling physical performances, but not a discernible unifying theme. With 'Encore', every song and dance piece is from a Cameron Mackintosh stage production. Dancers prowl and meow to Rum Tum Tugger’s 'Curious Cat', twirl batons like chimney sweeps on Mary Poppins’ 'Step In Time', pick pockets like Oliver Twist or storm barricades to 'Les Mis'.
The sparkles are still there but the tiaras are gone, for the cast of adult dancers who perform quick changes into their wardrobe full of sleek musicals-inspired costumes, while JD Smith soars during the breaks on anthems like ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and Jean Valjean’s ‘Bring Him Home’, which closes with JD’s bell ringing falsetto.
JD hands over vocal duties on one song to dancer Ayanna Burgan-Minniecon who blazes through ‘Burn’ from Hamilton. After an hour of seamless transitions, the ensemble finish with a 'Miss Saigon' segment; there was no helicopter for the finale but given the speed with which ACTC are developing, there might be one next time. Expect to see bigger things and longer runs at Fringe next year.
★★★★★
