Contemporary dance gets an odd rap these days. It’s not that those who practice the art form are necessarily demonised – it’s more that they’re not really understood.
Films like Step Up hold a disappointingly firm grip on modern cultural perceptions of the form, not to mention the stranglehold of rigid divides between so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Indeed, for those who believe the pleasures to be found in say, ballet, are completely distinct from the delights of a good bash of breakdancing, an art form like breakdancing’s spin off sport, ‘b-boying’, will seem like a strange, not particularly ‘respectable’ mutant hybrid of disciplines.
That’s where Dauntless Movement Crew come in. The young group of performers are dismissing myths and crushing stereotypes left, right and centre, proving that b-boying is not a form to be ignored or looked down on. For their next show, Jump First, Ask Later, the celebrated troupe of dancers are heading to the Sydney Opera House, proving that the world-famous venue need not merely be the home of tutus, librettists and snoots in suits.
“Dauntless Movement Crew started as a group of friends hanging out in Fairfield, training as a hobby,” says performer Joseph Carbone of the group’s origins. “We decided to form a team and began doing small community festivals and events. That is when we realised our passion and decided to pursue a career in performing.”
From there, the crew began performing at private events and functions, even wowing with special, ‘undercover waiter’ shows at weddings. These gigs would see the performers disperse themselves in cognito throughout the crowd of well-wishers, only revealing themselves and their talents at a coordinated point in the ceremony during which they would form a circle and begin their insane, gravity-defying feats.
Obviously, that level of skill requires a ridiculous amount of training, and the Crew rarely have much time off. “We train as a team at least four days a week,” explains performer Natalie Siri. “However we do our own individual training in addition to that.” The gang also prepare extensively before their shows, doing “at least thirty minutes of warm up and ten minutes of vocal training” before hitting the stage.
Nonetheless despite all the hard work, the real key to the Dauntless Crew’s magic is their diversity. Though they identify as b-boyers, their discipline touches on a number of disparate dance styles. Carbone credits the team’s individual backgrounds for this striking blend of subgenres. “We all started off in our own different art forms,” he says.
“Some of us were into b-boying, some of us were into parkour, and some were into martial arts tricking and gymnastics. Throughout training together, we have individually expanded on these different art forms. These days, we incorporate different styles of dance, including hip hop, contemporary dance and b-boying. However our shows are based on the style of b-boying.”
Of all the styles the gang adopt, parkour is probably the most en vogue at the moment, thanks largely to the volume of videos showcasing the style uploaded to YouTube daily. The highly athletic dance style involves performers running, jumping, sliding and flipping around urban environments, although Carbone describes it with the understated candour of a parkour veteran.
“Parkour is an art form which focuses on getting from one point to another,” he says, simply. “We believe that it is becoming increasingly popular and people love to do it because it’s something different and provides an opportunity to express yourself through movement.”
Of course, you can’t have dance without music, and a large part of the Dauntless Movement Crews’ show relies on the careful selection of tunes that perfectly fit the wild feats they perform. Carbone and Siri agree that the songs they select are “upbeat and mainstream” and that the key is selecting something that “the crowd can interact with”.
However, given how fast the crew are moving when they’re in the thick of a show, one has to wonder how aware they actually are of the audience. How can they possible tell what the audience are thinking and feeling while they’re doing backflips off each other? But the Crew are adamant: they feel the crowd. “We feed off their energy,” says Siri. “And [it helps] that we can tell if they’re enjoying the shows based on whether or not they’re clapping and cheering. We also generally tend to get a lot of positive feedback from both the producers of the show and the spectators afterwards.”
But even if they didn’t receive direct accolades from their fans, they would still hold a distinction few other crews can claim: one of the coolest logos of all time. Better still, their ridiculously badarse red wolf emblem has a suitably cool origin story entirely of its own. “We were all out camping, working on development for a theatre show,” Siri explains.
“It was after midnight in the middle of nowhere and we were climbing rocks and hanging out as a team. Everyone could hear a wolf howling but we weren’t sure whether it was real or if our minds were playing tricks on us, because it was dark and late and kind of spooky. After a few howls we decided to go and find the wolf, pretending we were a wolf pack, working together to find it. We never did, but it was a hilarious night together and we decided to keep that wolf with us always.”
Dauntless Movement Crew’s show Jump First, Ask Later is on atSydney Opera House, Thursday September 22 – Saturday October 2.
