[2015123] Cadence
Cadence @ Channel 9 Kevin Crease Studios
4:00pm, Sat 7 Mar 2015
I remember scanning through the Fringe Guide and flicking through the Circus section with some fear: I’ve seen so much circus over the past few years that it’s hard to get too excited by the genre (with some exceptions). But when I scanned Cadence‘s précis, I immediately noted the duration – thirty minutes – and inked it into The Schedule: I’ve come to believe that a defiantly short duration usually means that the performers have something to say, some kind of definitive statement to make.
Still, I was a little surprised to encounter a pretty decent crowd out at Channel 9 for such a short show; clearly, from the bubbly enthusiasm in the queue, they knew something about Cadence that I did not. And I must admit that, once the show started with a short video intro, my heart sank a little: why spend so much of the show’s precious duration on pre-recorded introductions?
But within moments my heart had been lifted and began to sing.
Cadence proved to be an utterly exhilarating patchwork of micro-performances, with music and acrobatics and displays of strength and control alternating to continually stimulate the senses. Acrobatic pieces, I was delighted to discover, were performed by Rhiannon Cave-Walker and Daniel Liddiard (from the amazing Gravity & Other Myths); their balances and action-packed aggressive tumbles were absolutely arresting. Geordie Little performed some gorgeous guitar pieces, plucking and percussing to create moody musical interludes, and Elliot Zoerner (also of GOM) drummed up a storm with Tom Brown working alongside, generating visuals and beats via his laptop. The tear-down and build-up of each segment was covered by short video interviews of the five members of the Cadence troupe, which veered from hilarious to heartfelt… but never failed to be interesting.
Sure, the performances were brilliant, and the content was sound… but the true highlight of Cadence was the pacing and direction of the entire show. After the opening video, there was scarcely a moment where I wasn’t being engaged by the performance of these five individuals; the thirty minutes flew by in a flash, with barely a moment of entertainment respite to be found. Cadence was, hands-down, an absolutely fantastic show.
(123) Cadence: Exhilarating cross-media musical acrobatics. Wonderful direction and performance. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 7, 2015