‘The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave’ is a dance and movement work that pulses with all the varied energy of an hours-long dance floor. Created in Auckland by queer, indigenous director Oli Mathieson, three dancer-choreographers in the cavernous Bay 21 at Carriageworks create such a concentrated swirl of storytelling movement that the audience cheers and hollers at the most striking moments.
Lucy Lynch, Sharvon Mortimer and Oli Mathieson move in mesmerising unison for the majority of the piece, making their moments of breaking out of it exhilarating. Stylistically, dance forms from the rave and techno worlds need personality, not just precision, and they bring it in spades. Their sneaker-clad feet hit the floor in such tight rhythm that the beat feels like it could be coming from their steps, not the booming sound system.
The lights hang low and blue as the trio begins in the far corner, moving even as we enter. People have their phones out filming and taking photos as we find places to watch from; the program encourages this. The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave doesn’t let up the pace once.
The soundtrack is the entirety of ‘Nocturbulous Sounds’ by Suburban Knight, an album with no breaks that flows through gritty beats from across the techno spectrum, harsh and pulsing in turn. The movements, as they take us through the experience of a 3-day rave over the course of an hour and a half, follow this same arc: elbows and limbs are thrown with both abandon and precision, sweat towels are lowered from the ceiling, and there’s crawling, rolling, grabbing each other’s hands like a life-raft. Their dancing makes you want to dance.
The sweat rolls off each performer, and the red cups they grab twice throughout the show to hydrate are thrown offstage to keep dancing. The minimal props feel mainly like tributes to different rave subcultures rather than specific features and are less important than the bodies manipulating them.
Of the Liveworks program in 2024, ‘The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave’ is one of the sexier, more high-octane offerings. There are strobe sequences, a brief and striking use of black light and transcendent performances from the three dancers. There is a wild commitment to every movement, and Lynch, Mortimer and Mathieson seem to have both the soundtrack and their choreography in their bones rather than brains. The delivery of the show is slick, despite relishing in the essence of the dirty dance floors it was inspired by, and absolutely transporting.
This show is part of the Liveworks Festival 2024, which will be hosted at The Carriageworks Performance Space from 23rd to 27th October.
Follow the link to book in for this or any other shows during the festival @ https://carriageworks.com.au/events/liveworks-festival-2024/
This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.
