It's Alive
Garage International @ Adelaide Town Hall

If your primary goal in attending shows at the Adelaide Fringe is to see something different, you’d be hard pressed to find something as charmingly oddball as IT’S ALIVE, a collaboration between local jazz-funk fusion stalwarts Murk Lurker and a collection of interpretative dancers led by Alex Kuijpers. Entirely improvised by both sides of the performance equation, the show has a strange intensity that is equal parts fascinating and funny in its sheer audacity. Kuijpers in particular is a one-of-a-kind stage presence, contorting body and face with an energy that feels drawn from some deep and unknowable psychic well.

The interaction of the musicians and dancers has a weird kind of tension. At moments things will seem to blend together in a perfect synchronicity of sound and human form, as in a moment where the dancers all seemed to be embodying each individual element of the band’s sound. Then, all of a sudden things will become entirely discontinuous, as the dancers each seem to be off on their own flights of fancy. Both states are exhilarating to watch, and the sense of livewire energy that comes with improvised performance is infectious. The performance ends with an invitation for the audience to take part in the festivities, and while this reviewer wasn't ready to get his own dancing shoes on, there is something very affecting about the invitation for all to join in on the chaotic fun.