Blushing by Zen Zen Zo with Director, Indiah Morris

(Interview followed by review)

“Look at these bodies that don’t look the same, that move differently and that aren’t trained muscular dancer bodies. They are bodies moving in the unique way their bodies do the movement, and that itself has an impact”

In conversation with Indiah Morris, Artistic Director of Zen Zen Zo, a Brisbane-based physical theatre company, we explore the raw + emotive world of their show, Blushing + what it means to make experimental art + performance in these times.

Blushing comprises of a 9-human ensemble + is a non-verbal exploration of our universal yet diverse relationship with touch. Indiah mentioned that her idea for the work took shape after COVID in 2024. Blushing touches on fear, desire, primal need + shame through the universal language of collective movement, relationship + emotional expression. It felt important to avoid individual story and to focus on the universal - Indiah stylised the ensemble to wear the same costumes + make up, like creating a blank slate for the work to express itself clearly. Their creative process is often semi-devised + semi-directed - this means that the work has been founded from play + improvisation from all the performers, with Indiah making the final creative decisions.

“While we’re limiting our pool because we are unique, we’re also limiting our pool because it’s a cost of living crisis”

Zen Zen Zo have named themselves the weirdest show in the Gardens. Performing in the Garden of Unearthly Delights feels particularly significant for them + for the Arts at large - it gives the public an excellent opportunity to expand on what they think performance is, within an environment where they expect to see more commercially favoured artforms like stand-up comedy.

The physical performance style of Zen Zen Zo aims to explore where Japanese artforms can meet a Western context. The original founders, Lynne Bradley + Simon Woods spent a long time training in Japan and borrow technique from Butoh, Suzuki + View Points. If you haven’t heard of these artforms, you can check out website here: https://www.zenzenzo.com/ - they offer fantastic workshops, trainings + much more. Indiah, has recently stepped into the Artistic Director seat, inheriting a company whose 33 year age legacy precedes her - which I think is very exciting. The company have performed the work previously in Brisbane, gaining a residency, creating fundraisers + receiving small grants to help them develop it further. Indiah mentioned that this tour would absolutely not have been possible without receiving the Adelaide Fringe Fund and even with the fund, they are still only just getting by. This is true for many independent artists who work in fields whose approach doesn’t ‘fit’ the mainstream.

“I think the influx of our constant, reflection back at ourself with the media and the internet is making the simple act of being an artist feel a lot more complicated”

Indiah mentioned that she is cautious of her privilege as an artist in the wake of such horrendous things happening around the world. She expresses the immense importance + her sense of belonging to the Arts but is her saying yes to this spot actually taking away the voice of somebody else who maybe needs the spotlight? It’s a big conversation that I think many artists are wrestling with at the moment that deserves care + kindness.

   
My Review

Human as a cosmic animal. Raw, unfettered + from the Earth. This incredible ensemble reawakens a profound + innate resonance between humans that has been lost somewhere in our modern existence. This is the second time I’ve seen this show + I will have to go again before their Adelaide Fringe season is done. It’s hard to write logically about such a poetic show, so expect a bit of both in this review.

Blushing really quenches a starving thirst for connection that traverses across many lifetimes. I cannot emphasise enough how vital + life-giving this performance is, in an age of AI + increased disconnection + hardship. We are returned to our imaginations + spirits as we watch the performers being danced by theirs. Through simple movements + uninhibited expression, we are reminded of the cosmic endlessness of our human body + the preciousness of our human face. The slow + spacious choreography re-enchanted well-known touch sensations like a kiss, a punch or a hug into something sacred that belonged to a more organic + primal world. This is the type of show that invites audiences to dream + remember rather than to sit disembodied + be entertained. We need art that makes people reconnect with themselves rather than escape. I have to acknowledge that this ensemble’s deep commitment to their own embodiment means that we, the audience, can walk away more embodied and what a generous gift that is.

What I love about Zen Zen Zo’s performance style is their ability to smash through performativity to expose the universal flesh that lives underneath man-made matter. . It gets to the bare bones of what it means to be a living part of this planet - that part that can actually relate to the trees, animals + the sky. Silently advocating for a natural world in crisis, the performers become forces: the moments in between, the reactions, the emotions + the elements that move us into our next living moments. Their bodies so capable of carving out worlds, time, space, magnetic forces, life + death. There is immense peripheral awareness + physical listening required in an ensemble to create such a stunning organism of movement + spirit: hours of moving + expressing together + building an abundant energetic web within + around themselves that locks them into a community ritual. It is a very different skillset that is required to successfully pull something like this off - a real giving of the whole body, mind + sprit to the performance.

The costumes + make-up invited us to connect with the human as a kind of jester-creature - white face, red around the eyes, off-centre red lips + white swim caps. There was a silliness + a otherworldliness to these beings that allowed us enough space to re-poetise our humanness. Yet there was enough relatable flesh to make us feel like we we’re all so alike. The transitions from white to red in the costuming was symbolic + easy to make sense of as we travelled through the many different worlds of this piece. I imagine people would leave the space with many different interpretations + it’s special to be able to leave a show having made your own personal meaning.

There is a sense that we were being lowered into our unconscious mind with musical familiarity as our anchor. What made this show accessible for all was the music. Different moments of the show were accompanied by beloved ethereal artists such as Florence + the Machine + Kate Bush and by culturally diverse instrumental songs that you would expect to see in shows by companies like Cirque Du Soleil. It is the perfect beginners show for those who have never dipped their toes into experimental performance. The balletic stage arrangements were also a familiar structure for dance lovers to hold onto - it was wonderful to see a diagonal line of performers flailing + contorting the linear into life: it was anarchic, wiggly + liberating to watch raw expression bursting out of repressed balletic forms.

This show reminds us that the weird + the ugly is actually the magic + beauty left on this planet, beckoning us to remember + befriend it. This show deserves to be on massive stages like Sadler’s Wells in the UK with a full house. If you have budget for only one fringe show this season, I encourage you to spend it on this show - it deserves to sell out.