Last night I was lucky enough to attend a performance of roadkill, by the Australian dance group Splintergroup.  I found it so interesting to see contemporary dance from somewhere so far away.  The first things that struck me were the physicality of the group, along with the confidence they had.

The stage set up of the show features a car and a phone booth.  When the show begins, two of the dancers are inside the car, and there’s no music.  Gradually he emerges, then she, but what I found so impressive was that throughout this opening section, there’s little “dancing” movement, yet the performers are so confident in what they’re doing, that the audience is still drawn into the performance.  Case in point, he gets out, opens the trunk of the car, then the hood, trying to repair it.  These movements are all fairly straightforward, no ‘artistry’ added to them, yet somehow we are still drawn into watching, waiting – anticipating? – when the "dancing" will begin.

A third dancer joins the performance after a while, and his physicality is impressive.  He appears seemingly out of nowhere, and something about the way he moves on stage makes him instantly feel menacing.  I began to understand what all the texts about this group meant when they said Splintergroup are famous for using unorthodox and irregular movement.  The dance one of the men performs in the phone booth is a great example of this.  There is also the duet for the two men who throw each other around stage using their necks.  At another moment, all three dancers run full tilt at the car and throw their bodies both on and off it. 

roadkill is an interesting example of a dance performance that relies heavily on the audience emotionally buying into the pretence.  We must  identify with the variety of emotions that would accompany the scenarios we see on stage.  Beginning with a broken-down car in the middle of the Australian outback, the show then splinters off into a variety of storylines.  Sometimes scary, sometimes soothing, it never ceases to be demandingly physical.

roadkill continues at the enwave theatre at Harbourfront in Toronto until tomorrow night.  It then goes to Montreal for five performances at Place des Arts, and Calgary at the Theatre Junction Grand.