DANCE-THEATRE MAKES KIDS TALK ABOUT DRUGS

Raewyn Hill's long-awaited larger cast dance-theatre work, Angels with
Dirty Feet, has premiered at Downstage before touring to Dunedin,
Auckland and Christchurch.

It explores the realm of drug addiction and is inspired by Australian
author Luke Davies' 2001 book Candy.

Hill describes herself as a child whose education included nothing
about drugs. She believes works like hers should tour small towns and
schools, funded from the $3 million recently allocated for drug
education. Children "need to be treated like adults by adults," she
writes in her programme note. "If they are smart enough to understand
and access drugs then they need to be outsmarted, not lectured ...
Give them something that will encourage them to feel, think and talk
about" the issue.

This, then, is a work with a social purpose. Extensive research, a
collaborative workshopping process involving dancers, actors and
dramaturg Duncan Sarkies, and a further period of rehearsal and
production have generated a compelling work. It treads a fine line
between the twin pitfalls of demonising or romanticising a real
problem that touches almost everyone regardless of their age or social
standing. The audience arrives to see six cast members standing on
stage, clad in grey tops and black trousers, while a flame-haired
seventh (Gabrielle Thomas) hammers and saws at bits of wood, making
crosses. There is quite a pile beside her and throughout the show it
keeps on growing.

Gabrielle, Edwin Wright, Claire Lissman, Paora Taurima, Sarah Sproull,
Craig Bary and Nathan Meister introduce themselves, at a microphone,
with quirky and personable insights. A cheesy rendition of Welcome to
Our World follows, complete with obvious mimetic gestures, then
metamorphoses thankfully into an energetic dance full of ups and downs
and flinging from slings.

Dance sequences that variously represent states of being related to
drug use are interspersed with narrated segments. Nathan shares
information from an official pamphlet entitled "So you want to inject
drugs!" that details the relatively safe use of the paraphernalia, not
to mention of your body. Addicts in recovery meet and share. The
demands and pressures of life take intense verbal form.

A mastermind quiz sequence disintegrates into a challenging
reinforcing of stereotypes. The "last race of the day" at a race
meeting uses line-dancing motifs to epitomise the social demands for
conformity.

An especially searing phone call between an addict daughter (Sarah) in
the North Island and her doting father in the South (Edwin) ends with
him singing the lullaby "Hush little baby."

The question, if not the answer, is clear: has he offered true
fatherly love or over-protection and over-indulgence?

This alone will provoke useful discussion on issues of
responsibility.

The ensemble work is impeccable and in the solo and duo sequences,
Sarah, Craig, Paora (the three who danced Night for Raewyn last year)
and Claire are exceptional.

The cast and roles may change as the tour progresses. A useful insert
in the programme gives titles to the 18 episodes that comprise the
75-minute performance. Angels with Dirty Feet is a welcome addition to
Raewyn Hill's impressive body of work.