Review: Festive Fever, dazzling entertaining dance showcase

I love loved Festive Fever – Holiday on the Dance Floor by the Waterfront Theatre School in its Lane Theatre. Festive Fever is a vibrant showcase of the dance taught at the WTS. The season runs September 5-14, 2024.

There is a clever conceptual arc underpinning Festive Fever. It is an assemblage of celebratory days – such as International Dance Day, World Earth Day, Women’s Day. Heritage Day aka National Braai Day. I loved the quirky World Bee Day. In tandem with the celebratory days there are commemorative days such as International Day Against Violence Against Women, Day of the Missing and Women’s Day.

The nine choreographers – all dance teachers at the WTS are:

James Bradley: Contemporary & Modern
Simone Marshall Kleinenberg: Tap
Shona Brabant: Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Street and Contemporary
Roxanne Hughes: Contemporary, Easy Coast Swing, Jazz and Commercial Heels
Raylene Ferreira: Street dance, Jazz and Modern
Ursula Lubbe: Musical Theatre, Modern, Contemporary & Tap
Genna Galloway: Musical Theatre
Nicola Lubbe: Classical Ballet
Sunè Esch: Commercial Latin & Jazz

The choreographers have conjured up a story for each sequence and each piece builds on the conceptual arc of celebratory and commemorative days.

Festive Fever is pitched between moment of gasp and wow to the reflective and elegiac. For instance the upbeat and fun International Dance Day (the opening number) is high energy with saturated bright colours (amazing costumes). International Disco Day is a bundle of vigour with glitter in the fishnet tights and then one gets the commemorative days which are so poignant.

I was extremely moved by the exceptional International Day Against Violence Against Women, brilliantly choreographed by Sune-Lee Esch. This is breathtaking dance theatre with exquisite choreography and dance performance- conveying the dominance that women are subjected to and the push pull or dependence through a tango dance which sees a woman whipped around the stage as she is subjugated to the dominance and violence of a man. I think that this sequence could be developed into a longer piece of dance theatre with the non-verbal narrative tenderly conveyed.

I did not know that there is an International Day of the Missing. This sequence, choreographed by  Shona Brabant is heartbreaking to watch and the audio visuals amplify the “missing”.  This is also a powerful piece of dance theatre with the acting coming across in the dance.

There is a terrific use of space in the theatre – on the small stage and off stage – in the auditorium and from outside. The large company of 49, comprised of 1-4^th year students uses the space with creativity, especially in Mean Girls Christmas Day, choreographed by Roxanne Hughes and Running of the Bulls, choreographed by Roxanne Hughes and Ursula Lubbe. Watch the videos here: Mean Girls https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMropNBW5/ and Running of the Bulls https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMropvUDW/

There are 14 dance pieces in Festive Fever. It goes very quickly watching. Too quickly! And that’s good. It’s just the right length. I actually didn’t look at my watch but I think it is two hours with the interval.

The dance is impressive – across the multiple genres taught at the WTS with stunning ensemble work, with the spotlight on some of the stars. Obviously some students are stronger than others but they are all accomplished. I don’t want to cherry pick names because this is an ensemble show but a shout to all the performers.

An impressive aspect of Festive Fever is that the students are in charge of technical- lights and sound. This is part of the ethos of the WTS to train students in all areas of the industry: Perform, Teach, Create. For some shows, they bring in professional creatives but for Festive Fever, besides the choreography which has a professional team and the costumes and audio visuals, this show is very much the gig of the students.

Bravo to the Waterfront Theatre School. Festive Fever is a thoroughly enjoyable evening with dazzling dance and is a vibrant showcase of the diversity of the dance taught at the school. It is a hugely entertaining show with the upbeat, layered by the poignant and reflective and it is an interesting show. Stunning costumes. Each number has its own set of costumes – no repeats.  Go and see it.

✳ Featured image: International Ballet Day, choreographed by Nicola Lubbe from The Waterfront Theatre School’s Festive Fever – Holiday on the Dance Floor, September 5-14, 2024.