DANCE DANCE INVOLUTION
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
★★★★
“brims with originality and creative flair”
Dance Dance Involution truly embodies the word “unique”. And that’s not a backhanded compliment. It’s truly original; the personalities and talents of its three creator-performers are so immediate and vibrant, grounding their theatricality in familiar childhood and adolescent lived experience.
The show opens with a rest; all three of the performers lie lethargically on top of each other, musing on whether there’s any purpose in continuing. Eventually, they decide, for the audience’s sake, they should probably do something. I’m very grateful they do. What follows is a series of sort-of skits placing the central question of the show – whether meritocracy remotely exists anymore in an economic context seemingly uninterested in fulfilling its end of the social contract to its youth – in tik-tok dances, school debating competitions and speech showcases. Involution is their target; the excessive pursuit of productivity which begats an exhausted, uninspired work force who ironically are far less productive and miserable on top of that.
The play is not absurdist as such, but it does highlight incredibly well the absurd facets of many contemporary societal occurrences, entrenched both here and in Hong Kong. With wonderful camp flare, a particular highlight is the introduction of the school debate in a style reminiscent of a boxing match, with both ‘fighters’ screaming to hype themselves up and stink eyeing their opponent from the other end of the ring. This exaggerated theatricality highlights how strange it is how children are pushed immediately into seeing so much in the world, from poetry to dancing, as a competition, when the adult world, to reach its maximum productivity, needs far more collaboration. Their motif of highlighting absurdity through theatrical exploration extends to the digital world, too; a great audience interaction section (one of many) encourages an audience member to, with a comical large hand on a stick, swipe every time they lose interest, forcing the trio to perpetually change in the middle of sections, displaying how strange it really is; the habit of quitting on art (which such technology encourages). Within the often very funny exchanges and physical sequences, poignant observations abound.
The show’s main flaw, in my view, is lingering too long on these observations rather than allowing the implication to grow through further theatrical ‘showing’ and within the audience’s minds. A few times, points felt excessively didactic, which made the watching experience less engaging, because it no longer felt participatory; we become passive recipients of ideas, rather than fellow analysts and inventors.
Nevertheless, DDI simply brims with originality and creative flair, and one remains very engaged despite the sections which need a little tightening. I am biased in that I too am part of the entry level generation and thus related to many of their ideas and expressions, but even if one can’t, their unique style of presentation, charming humanity and intelligent critiques will nevertheless prove as insightful as they are entertaining.
DANCE DANCE INVOLUTION
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Reviewed on 15th August 2025 at Studio at theSpace @ Niddry St
by Horatio Holloway
