As I settled down to watch the latest work from the Java Dance Company I was prepared to be entertained and provoked. And Itchy Feet did not let me down.

The stage was set for the opening night as Anna (Emma Johnston) and Greg (Jade Daniels) went through the familiar motions of cooking dinner in their cramped kitchen while Lauren (Rosanne Christie) did her smooth-talking real estate spiel. Within the first few minutes the familiarity of the sweet, romantic playful relationship between the couple as well as that of the straight, powerful, single, working woman had been firmly established. [Read more]

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Sneaky trick, cooking up an aromatic stir-fry as we settle in for a 6.30 show. The young couple in domestic bliss, taking sensuous pleasure in moving round each other in the cramped galley kitchen, will become known to us as Anna (Emma Johnston) and Greg (Jade Daniels).

A bench becomes their bed and again the close quarters give rise to intimate entwinings. Meanwhile a single woman, Lauren (Rosanne Christie), has a power chat on her mobile about desirable real estate.

Morning finds Anna and Greg mixing talk about the pros and cons of having a dog and moving house, with more aware, if slightly routine, physical couplings. The dance element is beginning to take precedence …

Lauren the Realty professional is direct, geometric, highly organised and regimented in her movements, as web-designer Greg works from home on his laptop and Anna opens up her boutique tea shop. She tries to interest Lauren in exotic teas with a lyrical spiel but all Lauren wants is Earl Grey.

Anna’s danced work day tells us she’s trapped, bored, climbing the cupboards. Little does she know Greg is off looking for their ideal home in Island Bay. Lauren treats him like a beauty parlour customer. But she does that with all her clients.

It’s when they meet by chance at a coffee bar that the forbidden fruit chemistry festers and fizzles. Delicious juxtaposings of sensuous reachings and strokings with sudden guilty retractions. When they return, as they must, to their respective work lives, their rhythms and flows are discombobulated.

Anna’s escape from the tedium of work to the anticipated joys of home is met with rejection by Greg. Focus turns to the increasingly frantic search for his lost e-drive memory stick – he has a deadline tomorrow! – anxiety escalates to anger then introspective embarrassment after it’s found. All these emotions are real and compelling …

Lauren and Greg both experience a lost-lust version of delirium tremens: an almost literal cold turkey pas-de-deux in isolation. They are bugged by each other and determined to shake it off.

All three are on a state of collapse from which they recover in their own ways, although there is an interesting symmetry in the way both women rediscover their equilibriums.  Anna and Greg return to cosy, reassuring entwining and Lauren to her Twinings tea. 

That this very human story transcends cons cious preoccupation with its means of expression speaks volumes for the craft of Sacha Copland’s choreography, the dancing skills of Rosewanne Christie and Emma Johnston and the movement skills of actor Jade Daniels.

The cleverly named Itchy Feet is about as accessible as dance can get for the uninitiated while delighting the aficionados as well. 

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