Macau taps to a funkier beat
'It's raw, fast and furious. It's manly and sexy,' says dancer James Doubtfire. It's also grown men bouncing manically around a stage dressed as construction workers. But, before you think Village People, think instead the Chippendales meet Gene Kelly meets Cirque de Soleil - and half a dozen muscled hunks lighting up the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Dein Terry's Tap Dogs is perhaps the biggest international act at this year's Macau Arts Festival, which begins on Saturday. And after the five intense and rarified weeks of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, it may come as a relief to many.
Macau's festival is smaller, less serious and a lot funkier, with a focus on alternative culture and visually striking shows. There's such an emphasis on physicality that, alongside the usual music, dance and art exhibit categories, the 15th annual festival has one simply called body language.
There's plenty of that in Tap Dogs, a show that is a pure, pounding, visual spectacle. 'We use water. We tap-dance up and down ladders. There's upside-down tap-dancing - and I'm the one who does it,' says Doubtfire, who is also the show's director. 'I strap myself into a harness. The boys haul me up on ropes and spin me upside down. Then I tap-dance on a plate that's hung from the ceiling, while another dancer stands on the ground below doing the same routine.'
The 33-year-old London native baulks at the suggestion that people might just go to see their muscles. 'We've been compared with the Chippendales, but that's not what the show's about. We're not strippers,' he laughs.
Doubtfire, who's been dancing since he was three, says they're all professional dancers. 'The show was originally created to show people that tap dancing could be more than Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, top hat and tails. We want to get the younger generation into it.'
Tap Dogs have toured the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, and came to world attention at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. 'We've been to so many countries, but people basically always react the same way,' says Doubtfire. 'They just want to have fun.'
Another festival highlight is Project Bandaloop, which is probably best described as an American eco-activist circus troupe. Their gravity-defying dance/circus show incorporates elements of extreme sports such as mountain climbing and rappelling, and has an underlying message about environmental awareness.
Macau will also host a number of free and outdoor shows to be held at historic spots such as the Leal Senado and St Paul's Ruins. After their paid performance in the Cultural Centre, for instance, Project Bandaloop will rappel over the Leal Senado free for the public.
Also performing on the famous wavy tiles will be the Tuscanas, a troupe of leather-clad Portuguese women percussionists who drum out Brazilian, Portuguese and African rhythms with biceps so toned that they put Hong Kong gym rats to shame.
The New York City-based Imago Theatre offers more physical theatre. For their show, Frogz, they perform dressed in bizarre and frighteningly realistic frog, sting-ray and penguin outfits. The New York Times called them 'inspired'.
There are two premieres this year: local theatre productions of Ghosts, a Cantonese adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play, and A Shot in the Dark, a humorous detective story set in colonial Macau.
And as well as their separate performances, the Macau Orchestra and the Guangzhou Ballet are collaborating on La Bayadere, Ludwig Minkus' classical Russian ballet of a love story set in India.
'The scope might be small, but there is a lot of variety,' says Charles Lam of the Cultural Institute of Macau, which is organising the festival. 'We're also proud of the many free outdoor events, which mean that people, especially tourists, who are just walking around the city can also feel part of the festival.'
