Show shapes up to be fun, entertaining

Tetris By Arch8, Circa Theatre, Wellington, March 25

Arch8 is a dance theatre group based in The Netherlands, who perform worldwide. This extremely enjoyable, interactive show, suitable for children 7+, is part of the terrific Capital E National Arts Festival. They packed out their one performance and left their audience beaming.

The show is inspired by the game Tetris, a tile-matching puzzle video game which was originally designed and programmed by Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov in Moscow in 1984.

In the game, all of the pieces contain four segments and make up a square, a line, and T and L shapes.

Choreographer Erik Kaiel uses this format in various degrees throughout the show, which is not only about making wacky and amusing shapes. It’s also about how we fit into a group.

Ryan Djojkarso, Mayke Van Krutchen, Francesco Barba and Pauline Truijen are onstage for the 50-minute duration, and their energy never flags.

Just as Cheese, another Capital E production, showed how you can make music from just about anything, Arch8 teaches us that movement and dance can be made of practically anything as well. They dive roll, flip over, slide under and pile on top.

The dancers are all highly skilled in movement, acrobatics, tumbling and balancing, with brilliant team work and timing.

One thing: parents do watch your children if they try to walk over each other’s backs. It looks fun, but needs care.

The Rubik’s Cube section, where the dancers’ movement is dictated first by the cast and then the audience’s turning of the cube, is very amusing. It’s also a great idea for parents or teachers to try at home, or in the classroom.

Just like the Tetris game, the work starts slowly. Then everything gets faster and more complex.

Towards the end, the lights come up and the dancers leave the stage and begin clambering over the seats to cajole audience members – children and adults – to join them onstage and become part of the action.

The joyous closing sequence has most of the audience onstage moving and dancing and the buzz is electric. Arch8 shows us that together we can do just about anything and have a great time doing it. – Ann Hunt