“Can live dance be remixed?” is the question posed in this interactive sample driven performance experiment. Riffing on popular culture jams profligate on YouTube (think Star Wars vs Family Guy vs Keyboard Cat) – the collective brings iconic motion picture moments into dance form with a smile both wry and dry.

Beyond the use of video the dancers bring true creative flair to the performances in a genre-bending mash-up of dance styles and conventions. It’s high standard improvisation, brought to fruition with audience help: picking from a selection of traditional and absurd dances in different styles. Nobody knows what may come – in Friday’s show we saw Swan Lake and the Macarena performed in various modes of the modern and hip-hop ouvre. Truly unexpected and original work…

It’s an open ended workshop, so Friday’s dances will differ from Saturday’s; which is slated to take the next level and incorporate audience participation in the form of remixed video contributed throughout the course of the festival. This could include literally any video content you can think of – so it’s a striking imaginative leap for the dancers to translate into movement in a live context.

Hit up the Crack House to contribute to the video remix or catch the final multidisciplinary collaboration at 7pm Tonight at The Loft!

CRACK TROOP Rowan McDonald defies the space time continuum again to catch up with CRACK ARTIST Patrick Lenton to discuss Apocalyptic fashion victimistion and his new show

CRACK:       What are you expecting from TINA and CRACK this year?   Anything you can’t possibly miss?  Apart from your own show of course!

LENTON:    The Five Foot Five event on the Friday night looks to be a hoot. Excited to see Applespiel do their Awful Literature is Still Literature I Guess, got a sneak of them at Underbelly this year and it was great. Annnnnd, the Apocalypse themed party on Sunday. Should be hell.

CRACK:       Ah, yes, I saw some of that too – live readings of awful smut, surely a sign that it’s the Apocalypse.  And that being so, what do you wear?

LENTON:   My biggest fear is being caught in the apocalypse wearing flimsy dress shoes. As soon as I turn my stylish ankle, then bam – the dinosaurs are ripping into my nubile flesh. So I would wear boots. And a shotgun hat.

CRACK:     You totally just stole my look. Never mind. TRICK QUESTION: Do you think the Newcastle Knights are in with a chance at the NRL Premiership this year?

LENTON:   If they get to wear full armour, I can’t see many people volunteering to stop them.

CRACK:      Hah! That’s all you know.  I can confidently predict that by the time this article is published they will be out of the competition. Since you clearly know nothing about the NRL, what do you see are the main challenges facing emerging writers?

LENTON:   Dragons.

CRACK:      Nope, They’re out too. Honestly.  What is it with Artists and Sport? Actually don’t answer that. What would you say are the main challenges facing emerging artists in theatre?

LENTON:   Dragons. Apart from dragons, it’s probably the extenuated, amorphic notion of what emerging actually means. There’s a very real danger that a writer could be stuck inside the emerging cocoon for the rest of their lives, constantly applying for mentors or developments or magic swords etc. The actual opportunities for emerging writers to put on real work – ostensibly the most important part of a theatre writers job – are increasingly scarce.

CRACK:      Is there a generation gap within the Australian theatre community?

LENTON:   Yes.

CRACK:      That’s a very mysterious and complex answer. So- tell me a little bit about the background of this show?  Has it changed much in its various incarnations?

LENTON:   100 Years of Lizards began as a lab development with Underbelly Arts Festival on Cockatoo Island. As is the beauty of a dedicated development time, the playmutated in a variety of ways over the course of it. Some were necessary plot changes – others no more than sporadic whims. A joke about including a jellyfish in a scene, led to featuring an entire jellyfish subplot. Characters were invented and dropped like an old hat. But it’s much better now. Under the expert directorial vision of first Scott Selkirk and now Ngaire O’Leary, the show which I ludicrously outlined on the page has been translated into something horrible and beautiful on the stage.

CRACK:     Sounds invigorating! What’s next?

LENTON:   100 Years of Lizards will be travelling to the Adelaide Fringe in 2012. We will be playing at a venue called The Maid from March 1-17.

CRACK:      Rocking Chair.  But you can catch it at CRACK exclusively for the time being, since March 1-17 is not Saturday October 1st, at 9:30, or Sunday October 2nd at 4pm, in the Crack House.  Be there.