DREAM SHAKE questions  success and failure, identity and individualism, through the frame of sport, self-help and popular culture.

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The title ‘DREAM SHAKE' refers to a basketball move by Nigerian-born NBA player Hakeem 'The Dream' Olajuwon. The move is an elegant combination of footwork and head-and-ball fakes, practiced and imitated by young hopefuls growing up in the 80s/90s on basketball courts all over the world. The 'Dream Shake' represents, in a mythical way, the dreams of the kind of transcendence promised by elite sport. It feels an appropriate reference for this work, both for its symbolism and its choreographic elements.

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DREAM SHAKE aims to subvert conventional ideas of virtuosity and success. We are interested in the creative act of not doing a task how it’s meant to be done, the unexpected beauty or invention that comes from failure and the triumph of the team that doesn’t take the game too seriously.

 

The work draws inspiration from: the aesthetics/dance moves of 90s boy bands; online cliched ‘daily quotes’ about failure from famous people (eg. Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs); group therapy; and Adam Curtis’ documentary ‘Century of the Self’.

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This work has undergone an initial 2 week research period at Bankstown Arts Centre supported by Urban Theatre Projects, the Australia Council for the Arts and Canterbury-Bankstown Council.

 

It is currently in development.

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Performers/Devisors: Nat Rose, Teik-Kim Pok, Nitin Vengurlekar, Malcolm Whittaker, Kevin Ng.

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Sound: James Brown  Dramaturgy: Clare Britton

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