The Queen Show

Combining the precise, exquisite movements of ballet with vibrant rock music is an exhilarating concept. It’s also fabulous way to fuel the interest of young people in classical dancing, and to attract a wider audience to see the end result.

Five years ago Sean Bovim and his Bovim Ballet troupe wowed audiences with Queen at the Ballet, a superb event with daring choreography, dancers who soared flawlessly, rock singer Cito delivering the songs and a plot line that added dramatic substance.

Now the internationally-lauded dancer and director Dirk Badenhorst is presenting a similar idea with Mzansi Ballet, the troupe he founded to cultivate young talent and to take ballet to the townships.

The Queen Show features 17 recorded songs danced by a young crew in a variety of ensemble pieces and duets. It comes at an energetic pace with barely a pause between numbers, on a stage that’s bare except for a small scaffold frame. The programme lists the numbers and shows a gallery of the dancers, but a nice touch would be to credit the main dancers for each number, so you’d know which youngster is taking the lead without trying to match them to the picture.

Standing out among them is lithe Tsebang Sipambo, who oozes sensuality as she toys with the four men in Somebody to Love. Javier Monier Jouve Jr is also glorious with moves that are technically perfect and admirably athletic.

You don’t have to remember the excellent Bovim Ballet production to find something missing here, however. The ensemble routines were frequently marred by a mis-step or a dancer slightly out of synch with the others, as if a few more rehearsals were needed to make everything gel.

A welcome touch is the inclusion of several lesser known songs among the big ticket numbers, to broaden your appreciation of Queen’s music and make the show less predictable. The familiar favourites are also there, of course, like Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody and Who Wants To Live Forever, which was marred slightly by a bass-heavy backing track.

While some of the costumes by fashion designer David Hutt work well, others feel over-fussy, and impractical for one soloist whose flimsy drapes kept falling across her face.

Choreographers Michael and Angela Revie have created a fairly hectic pace with lots to look at, but the dancers seem to lack the experience to pull off many truly spectacular moves that would lift the performance from good to great.

There’s a lot of reliance on the theatricality of the scaffold too, perhaps pushing the production away from ballet a touch too much for the purists. I’m not one of them, so I’m happy to see fun and freer elements of gymnastics, robotics, breakdancing and a couple of yoga moves woven in.

Overall, it’s a production based on pace and enthusiasm rather than perfection.

Mzansi Ballet presents The Queen Show runs at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre until January 19. Tickets from Computicket.