I attended the Saturday program of Light on our Feet dance cabaret. There was only one interpretive routine and no bad modern ballet, so I enjoyed it more than other dance cabarets I’ve been to in Victoria. On the other hand, there was two comedy routines that had nothing to do with dance, which kind of muddied the show.

My favourite performances:

Nath Keo

Bellydance fused with Cambodian (Khmer) classical dance. Nath’s gender presentation, particularly his signature costume, is a man. Given that both of these styles were traditionally danced primarily by concubines (although both have male minorities), I consider this performance to be genderqueer. Nath’s dance was aethetically pleasing, technically impressive and very political (in contrast to the banality of interpretive dance).

Ballet Victoria

Classical ballet to contemporary dance music. I’m usually dismissive of ballet, but I have never seen it danced to such engaging music. The dancers stuck to classical footwork while adding a few modern hand motions. It made me want to sign up for ballet class.

Rachel Oates Tribal Fusion

The fusion included flamenco, which kind of stole the show from purer flamenco dancer Monique Salez. Rachel’s dance wasn’t awesome through-and-through, but there were some moments of brilliance.

LauraBellyDance

A pair of traditional bellydancers with burning candles balanced on their heads! I suppose the chance of injury was pretty low, but dropping the candles in front of a big audience seemed likely. One of them was pregnant, which strikes me as a bellydance cliche.