Nick Power. Lion Arts Factory. 2 Mar 2020
The Lion Arts Factory was the perfect venue to attend a hip hop dance event. However, the ghetto-like brick walls and ten metre diameter cypher circle weren’t enough to convince that Nick Power could fake spontaneity with his choreography. Hip hop was born in New York and its popularity is proven in this production culminating from four years of collaboration bringing together Aaron Lim from Darwin and Erak Mith of Phnom Penh. The young men begin like fighting cocks – posing for fearful effects and faking the first move. Once cred is shown, the game of one-upmanship challenges is on. Some of the moves are astonishing for their suddenness and adroitness. Hip hoppers spend a lot of time close to the ground, upside down and on their head. After challenging each other to exhaustion, Lim and Mith take a deserved break and bottle of water while the audience watches wondering what will happen next. A new challenge begins but this time it’s a bromance with the dancers entwined in dynamic couplings of great accomplishment, but none as gravity-defying as in the picture in the Festival program. It becomes clear that Mith is the mentor and Lim the student.
While a great demonstration of the genre, the show opens the question once more if it’s possible to take hip hop, or street art for that matter, out of the spontaneity of the street - where so much more is at stake for the participants and audience - and enjoy the same thrill in a controlled environment. This wasn’t so much dancing with wolves – more like owning a clever dog.
David Grybowski
When: 28 Feb to 4 Mar
Where: Lions Arts Factory
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
