Presented by Kurrurr Youth Performing Arts
Reviewed Wednesday 23 February 2011
http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au
http://www.tandanya.com.au
http://www.kurruru.org.au
Venue: Tandanya, 253 Grenfrell Street, Adelaide
Season: 23-25 Feb at 1.30pm, 23-27 Feb at 7pm
Tickets: $15.00/$12.00
Duration: 60 mins
Bookings: FringeTix 1300 FRINGE (374 643) or http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au
Large tree branches hang above a misty stage. It is dusk, and a min min appears, a mysterious natural light that entrances the community and leads the curious on an adventure back to the time of their ancestors.
So begins this mystical journey that seamlessly blends modern and indigenous dance and storytelling with contemporary music.
Min Min premiered on the banks of the river at the Pomberuk Cultural Centre in Murray Bridge in September 2010 and is being reprised for the Fringe with an expanded cast.
Divided between the old and the new worlds are dancers Amber Ahang, Lilla Berry, Pearl Berry, Eleanor Lange, Robyn Liddle, Damien Ralphs, Hannah Scanlon and Jessie Wilson. The modern dancers in particular are quite exciting as they tell their story through Deon Hastie’s refreshing choreography, which is sometimes complicated but always handled smoothly by the talented young cast.
The story is interwoven with traditional dance sequences performed by the Tal-Kin-Jeri Dance Group, lead by Elder Major Sumner and featuring Tyrone & Junior Sumner and the very talented Robert Taylor who owns the stage whenever he appears.
Lighting designer Mark Pennington provides patterns of light that add to the mesmerising quality of the present-day journey and starkly contrasts the simplicity of the lighting for the ancestral reflections.
The pre-recorded music is complemented by boomerang clapsticks and some verbal rhythmic accompaniments but unfortunately drowns out almost everything Elder Sumner says to introduce the traditional routines.
Kurruru purports to be one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth performing arts companies, and the professional level of some of the talent displayed in Min Min certainly supports that.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis, Performing Arts Critic, Glam Adelaide.
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