Show reviewed: 26/02/26

Show rating: In flight with 5 stars!

KOWAW (Eagle) is a poetic meditation through movement on the Great Roc by Szu Shih-Min and Yu Hsin-Hsüan, drawing on Szu’s lived Saisiyat cultural memory and Yu’s visions of the mythical bird of prey. It is critically acclaimed and the very finest contemporary dance show at the Adelaide Fringe in 2026, with a perfection that is alien, captivating, sublime. The Roc is a giant bird that is featured in Asian and Middle Eastern folklore, said to be legendary birds of great size that were said to have powers of fecundity, protection, or revenge against enemies.

There is a spareness to the stage, an Asian simplicity and economy of presentation, where the creative focus is on the dancers themselves and their choreography rather than flashy effects or a soundtrack to distract from their work. Every motion, every gesture, every was breathtakingly mathematical and delivered with the precision of elite technical dancers.

Both Szu Shih-Min and Yu Hsin-Hsüan were anthropomorphic in their approach to their characters that I believed I was seeing birds as they go about life both skyward and upon the ground; KOWAW is a masterclass in the character study of apex predatory avians. There is a cycle of dynamic energy exchange between Szu Shih-Min and Yu Hsin-Hsüan as a duo and in these cycles of trading movement, the choreography migrates from deeply grounded tension to moments of freedom and flight. Rather than limiting the show, the precision of the choreography, the control of the dancers and the exacting stage production values created a very authentic performance of a strange animal in an alien environment.