At one point at Dancefx’s Go-Go Dance Extravaganza Saturday night, a mohawked break dancer balanced on his fingertips and lifted his legs above his head. The crowd went ballistic — and that was only the intermission.
Various groups from the company’s Athens and Charleston studios performed at the show, including the Charleston Dance Project, Slow Jamz, the Modern Day Pin-ups, Sweet Dreams, the Phuzed Crew, and probably some others we missed as the announcement signs danced across the stage in the hands of an adorable young dancer in a tutu. While some groups were more advanced and synchronized than others, each number was designed to entertain and thrill, and they comprised a superbly satisfying show crammed with entertainment.
There was a refreshing lack of the clichéd sex appeal one would expect from a go-go dance show, and that was replaced with fierce and difficult hip-hop choreography, some Fosse-style jazz, and a flirty Michael Jackson piece. Marvin Gaye crooned as ladies in long white men’s button-downs worked the crowd for a contemporary piece. Sexy smiles would have been more effective than the forced sensual pouts of some dancers, but the music, movement, and energy at the Farm more than compensated for that.
The groups used props in a fun and authentic way. With abandon, girls flung themselves around chairs that were then utilized by break dancers for more death-defying balancing acts. In the final act, a rope was lowered down from the ceiling, center stage, and one-by-one the girls jumped onto a raised platform to grab hold of the rope and gracefully swing from it, writhe up it, or flaunt around it.
The costumes were fun and consistently captured the song’s essence, from the bedazzled push-up bras worn by the leggy ladies in the first number, to the fur vests over sports bras worn during a Rihanna song. We especially loved the nerd glasses worn by ladies from Athens dancing to a “Hammertime”/Nicki Minaj remix. Solid lighting effects added a professional touch to the night.
The charismatic Ivey Bacall even made a surprise appearance — she was kind enough to traipse over from Pantheon to give an unsuspecting lucky man from the audience a quick lap dance.
You could call Dancefx Charleston’s “Everyman Company.” Dancers of all shapes, sizes, genders, and walks of life come together in a fun, approachable, and creative way to entertain. They ought to be thanked for filling a void in the Charleston dance scene that desperately needs to be filled.
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