Speculation was rife in the crowd waiting for the start of the Short + Sweet Dance Gala Final – after all, nobody out front knew who the finalists were. Everyone knew there would be some works from each of the three groups of 10 so far presented, but not how many. So the eventual roster held surprises and some disappointment when particular works were missing. Awards were also not being announced til after the end of performances, so it was going to be a long evening.

Eventually, we discovered there were four works from Group 1, Five from Group 2 and one from the Wild Card selection.

The crowd-pleasing opening number, M’n’M, (from Group 2), choreographed by Simon Watts and Joshua Cesan, is the latest incarnation of a formulaic structure — opening with a tap dance duet, adding drums, then switching to street dance – which focuses on the interactions between rhythm and movement via tap dance and street dance. Various combinations of dancers from this crew have presented variations on a theme over the past 4 or 5 years at least. Danced here with irrepressible delight by Simon Watts, Josh Cesan, Andrew Cesan, Jacob Cook, Taniora Motutere and Paul Wilson, with Nick Watts on drums and Sam Slaughter on vocals, of course it wins you over. Perhaps one day we’ll get the tap dance only version?

“So Fake It’s Real. The Trailer” (from Group 2), choreographed by Anna Bate and performed by Alexa Wilson, Georgie Goater and herself, looks very strange taken out of context of the work as a whole, and it’s not so easy to imagine the scifi movie setting in your mind’s eye. Their movement is downright strange, distorted, apparently shambling and out of control (though of course is rigorously in control, such is their skill.) Perspectival shifts are also achieved choreographically, so the movement appears at times foreshortened or magnified, and temporal play has it coming in bursts or suddenly freezing,  to convey that they are affected by shifting gravities and associated mass and volume,  The musical collage arranged by Sally Nicholas is very effective in establishing the sci-fi theme.

Suction (from Group 2), for six dancers, choreographed by Anitra Hayday and set to I Miss You by Trentemoller, is full out contemporary dance, action packed, technically demanding, with some unusual structural logic at times. Bodies are flung on the air, rolled on the floor, rotate erratically as if being swished and swashed in a washing machine. It effectively conveys a sense of fighting against the feeling of being sucked down by the floor, and it gets lots of cheers.

Thinking Man (from the Wild Card section) choreographed by Matthew Moore and Mark Bonnington, is pretty much a companion piece to Suction — both are choreographed and danced by recent Unitec graduates. Both demonstrate sophisticated choreographic structuring and logic and specific movement vocabularies and lexicons developed specially for the work. Both demand technically strong performers, and both are given highly polished performances. By contrast to the womens’s work, which layers bodies across the surface of the floor, Moore and Bonnington take to the air and make strong use of the diagonal, making their own bodies a sculptural feature of the work. Like the women, they receive sustained applause.

Wasabi Dance Crew (from Group 1) close out the first half of the show with their effervescent neon pop-coloured CCB (Chck Chck Boom), choreographed by Carlene Newall and Grace Crawford. The dancers – Amy Thomson, Georgia Menhennet, Holly MacLeod, Maddy Allen, Maddie Holland – are aged 10 -13 years, and are technically and performatively confident and capable. It is notable that this girl’s own crew’s street dance vocabulary  is pretty much identical with the boyz dance vocab – steps, gestures, poses, inflections, attitudes… Girls these days like to have the same fun as boys, it seems.

After Intermission, the final five were as different as possible from one another in style, content and performance.

Evie (I) by Tracey Trinder for seven dancers has a ritual feel and focuses around dancers clothed in flowing robes carrying lidded jars of water to the front of the stage where they sit with them as if in prayer – there are references to birth, and death, perhaps connected? This is followed by a gorgeous video (by Sacha Stejko) projected as the backdrop for continued dancing, with bodies floating, drifting, standing, entwining in murky water, often as spectral presences. Somehow, the projected sequences suggest healing. I h have no idea how this is achieved.

In utter contrast, in The Double Derelicts (Group 2), clowns Justin Haiu and Tama Jarman follow a battered old sofa onto the stage, and proceed with their schtick, a witty (though fairly conventional) routine built from exchanges and sequences of gesture, mimicry and follow-on, deliberate mistaken-ness and pretended misunderstanding. It is of course highly choreographed, it requires split second timing for its success, and there’s a good deal of athleticism required with leaps over the couch, vanishing staircases, swapped seating and very animated slapstick. And it is a crowd-pleasing kind of performance. But clowning sits in its own territory, by definition not-physical theatre, not-dance and not-mime, so I am a little surprised that this made it to the final of Short + Sweet Dance, regardless of the high-quality performance.

The final three are all from Group 1, and were notable in that programme.

Zahra Killeen Chance’s curiously compelling GO GO DO for seven dancers was the choreographic standout in Group 1, and it is no surprise to see it here. The pleasure lies in seeing it again and noticing things I missed the first time round. Then I found it emotional flattening, but perhaps I was sitting too close, Now, from my seat in the Gallery, I appreciate the spatial configuration reorganisation in sections 2 and 3, and the virtuoso requirements so fully met by the dancers, and I find it much more enjoyable.

Sarah Houbolt & Edward Clendon’s acrobatic duet Plain of Lonely Souls looks much the same, though from the gallery I can’t see the body paint or the visceral control that made their duet so watchable up close.

And absolutely the right choice for the finale, the effervescent culturally-based Pacific flavoured Ko’au Eni for 12 dancers and three drummers, choreographed by Nita Latu. It brought the house down, and you could hear people trying to figure out how many awards it might possibly win.

After a further intermission while the judges conferred, there was an impressive performance by guests Ballet Troupe Croatia, winners at Short + Sweet Dance Singapore, with The Fifth Movement from Ars Diaboli, and then the awards announcements.

The Youth Award – Wasabi Dance Crew – CCB (Chck Chck Boom) choreographed by Carlene Newall and Grace Crawford)

Most Effective Use of Costume – Justin Haiu and Tama Jarman – The Double Derelicts
Runner-up: Kotahitanga Union! by Phoenix Belly Dance

Most Effective Use of Sound – Simon Watts and Joshua Cesan – M’n’ M
Nominees
Ko’au Eni by Nita Latu;  Go Go Do by Zahra Killeen-Chance;  So Fake It’s Real by Anna Bate; 
M’n’M by Joshua Cesan and Simon Watts; Preceding the Thread by Kate Bartlett and Chris Tempest 

Best Stage Design – Tracey Trinder  – Evie (I)
Nominees:
So Fake It’s Real by Anna Bate; Evie (I) by Tracey Trinder; Kotahitanga Union! by Phoenix Belly Dance;  Preceding the Thread by Kate Bartlett and Chris Tempest

Judges “We Want More” Awards for works that we’d like to see developed further (and again!): 
H*A*M by The Wolf Pack (Jahra Moxie, Rose Philpott and Lucy Beeler)
Katie’s Beaten Track by Katie Burton
M’n’M by Joshua Cesan and Simon Watts
Ko’au Eni by Nita Latu

Best Female Performer – Sarah Houboult
Nominees:
Katie Burton (Katie’s Beaten Track), Sarah Houbolt (Plain of Lonely Souls), Georgie Goater (So Fake It’s Real), Jenny de Leon (Kyrie Eleison) 

Best Male Performer – Tama Jarman
Nominees:
Edward Clendon (Plain of Lonely Souls), Justin Haiu (The Double Derelicts), Tama Jarman (The Double Derelicts), Paul Wilson (M’n’M), Mark Saul Bonnington (Thinking Man) 

Audience Choice Awards:  (voted by each audience as their favourite work)
Group 1 – Ko’au Eni by Nita Latu
Group 2 – M’n’M by Joshua Cesan and Simon Watts
Wild Card – Thinking Man by Matthew Moore and Mark Saul Bonnington

Overall Supreme Winners:
GO GO DO (Zahra Killen-Chance) 
The Double Derelicts (Justin Haiu and Tama Jarman) 

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