We should all be dancing more. By Sugar Rea-Bruce
A wristband, air thick with neon lit fog, and a bass line that thumps in time with your heart. This is not one of those magical nights out on the town in a grotty underground rave geared up and slick with sweat, no, this is a piece of theatre in the squeaky-clean curated space of Q Theatre. And I am about to witness a spectacle that means my jaw won’t leave the floor for the next hour.
The Butterfly That Flew Into The Rave is an endurance dance piece that radiates joy, pain and sweat. Created by Oli Mathiesen, this show emulates the best rave you have ever been to, where there are no regrettable hookups or incessant vape breaks, just music pulsing in your veins and where your feet never stop moving. Choreographed and performed by Mathiesen, Lucy Lynch, and Sharvon Mortimer, the movement is hypnotic, drawing you into the daze of the rave making it impossible to look away. The movement shifts and merges into new choreography seamlessly. Full of motion that is powerful, exciting and never pretty. This dance we behold is raw and violent, simultaneously messy and perfectly precise with mundaneness leaping to aggressively sensual and feral in the span of minutes. Making the huge stage of the Rangatira seem effortlessly filled by only three performers.
The athleticism of these artists is something to be marvelled at and celebrated. And boy, do the audience know it. Shrieks, cheers and calls of encouragement leap from the crowd. My favourite being “Almost there darlings! You’re gonna sleep good tonight!” as we near the end. We are invited not only to watch this spectacle but to join in our own way, with audience members bouncing on chairs and leaning over railings, nodding along to the throbbing sound of the album Nocturbulous Behaviour created by Suburban Knight.
It would be remiss of me not to mention what I consider the fourth performer in this piece. The lighting. Never before have I been to a show where the lighting gets as much applause as performers but it is easy to see why. Lead lighting designer Shanell Bielawa in collaboration with Mathiesen, Bekky Boyce, Jazmin Whittall and Jacobus Engelbrecht, have created a lighting design that is as fluid, exciting and tight as the performance. A beautiful example of design aiding and elevating a work and sitting at equal importance to the performers. The lighting landscape takes us on a journey through the rave, from its low intimate spaces to flickering glimpses of limbs to what feels like sunlight kissing the performers faces.
The Butterfly That Flew Into The Rave feels like a good reminder that humans should dance more. Because movement is joy and joy is electric. At least that's how it feels in this small corner of the world in a squeaky-clean theatre surrounded by people that will lose their voices shouting their love to this incredible piece of work. So yes, you will catch me dancing soon, in no way as magnificently as these performers but I hope to feel as full as I dream they do afterwards.
About Sugar Rea-Bruce
Living a true artist's life, Sugar has thrown herself into writing, devising, and performing since graduating Toi Whakaari in 2024. (All while freelancing, making money, and living life.) Her work aims to “stretch audience’s belief to breaking point”, incorporating physical theatre, puppetry, and live music into work that feels magical. With a passion for writing, she aims to gain more experience in all forms to fuel her future work.
