Blaze – really is a dance spectacular

 

It’s all going on  at the Sydney Opera House these holidays, and at the core is the high energy, glossy street dance spectacular Blaze. This show comes to Sydney direct from a West End season and it’s full of the best young contemporary street dancers from all over the world.  

 

If like me you’ve got your insight to these different forms of street dance from the TV show ‘So you think you can dance’ then its that for sure, but with a whole level of production and theatricality that takes it to 90 minutes of full-on exciting and dynamic contemporary dance. The concert hall was packed full with all kinds of people from families, dance school students, date nighters and groups of friends just taking in a holiday show.      

 

The set, designed by Es Devlin, takes over the whole width of the concert hall stage and is inspired by the chaos of a teenage bedroom and provides a canvas for technically sophisticated video and light projections that use pioneering video mapping technology. It’s super clever with its heaps of doors and draws allowing the dancers to both access and leave the stage in ways that add to the slickness of the visual.     

This show features music by Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, David Guetta and the well known tunes all add to the flow of the dancing – which is just wonderful. These sixteen dancers cover every street style with each getting their moment to showcase their particular style. 

There are several highlights but I loved the trio of tappers working their magic to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the fun of MC Tony Thrill in his audience participation Atomic Food sequence.

The cast includes three b-boys, Machine, Jessy and Lagaet who from their first entrance, in just their jocks, steal the show with each of their pieces. Wow can they dance and the strength and discipline in their bodies takes your breath away. 

This show just builds and builds with energy and excitement that by the finale the whole concert hall were on our feet bopping in our seats and screaming with delight, wrapped up perfectly when two young sisters were plucked from the crowd to join the cast in their encore, reflecting the enjoyment we were all experiencing. 

It’s the perfect show for Sydney audiences enjoying the relaxed playful summer vibe and doing such great business I hear it’s already been extended. I loved it and so will you – a very rare five stars!