Review by Lauren Donikian
Walking into The Neilson Nutshell, you are stopped before the doors open to hear a message from Concept, Lead Artist and Choreographer Azzam Mohamed. He talks about culture, the world we live in, dreams for the future, and what the world of dance can do, then he invites you to come in and feel it.
In the theatre there isn’t a chair in sight, the seven dancers are standing alone in set positions around the room, blending in as the audience walks amongst them. There are rows of spotlights on the ceiling that are the main lighting, with some amber hued spotlights included. It’s not so dark that you can’t see, but it is hard to make out faces. Lighting designer Andre Vanderwert uses the lighting to highlight the dancers and guide the audience around the room. Whether it’s lights out on certain dancers or a strong orange spotlight on one dancer the lighting acts as another character shifting the focus from group dances to solo dances.
There is music playing throughout the performance with Composer Jack Prest creating the soundscape. At first the music is just a pulsing beat and as it becomes faster, and more instruments are added the dancers mirror this with their movement. Making their moves larger and faster. The music is a mix of electronic, house and Afro beats, so by the end of the show everyone is dancing or at least bobbing their heads. Each dancer has their own individual style, in terms of costuming and movement and the beauty of this is that they could be anyone. Throughout the one-hour performance the audience is encouraged to follow the dancers around the room and immerse themselves in the experience.
Katma means “suffocation” or “no room for breathing” in Sudanese slang, and Mohamed and his creative team express this feeling through their movement. Whether they are dancing closely together or on their own the use of music is intoxicating to them, and it draws everyone in. What was made very clear to me was that this was a team effort. With Mohamed as director, he worked alongside co-creators and performers Isabella Solisa, Genifer Navuzi, Angelica Osuji, Naethiel Lumbera, Molonai Makalio, and Robin Chen to create a powerful performance. A mix of street and club dance moves makes up the choreography so you can expect to see waacking, krumping, breaking, locking, hip-hop, house and Afro dances.
It's a joy to see these performers embrace their specialised style of dance and share it with the audience and each other. As a lot of these styles are more underground and not seen everyday (unless you are in the dance community) it’s nice to see this crew not gatekeeping their movements but inviting us to be a part of it. To witness the learning and embracing of movements as expression to how they feel. They are inclusive, encouraging the audience to join in and have admiration and respect for each other’s talent. The show went so quickly, and it was nice to get lost in the movement and stay in the moment. To see them almost teach and learn right in front of our eyes, to yes and each other in movement. It was beautiful.
