Luminous
Reviewed by Sarah Gates
Art Kinetica is one of the only companies in the world exploring a combination of backlit body art and circus. Founded by Jessica Watson Miller, Australia bodypainting champion and 10th in the world at professional brush and sponge bodypainting, Art Kinetica presents Luminous in this year’s Adelaide Fringe, coming from an award winning season at the Sydney Fringe Festival in 2012.
Luminous displays tonnes of creativity. The theatre, La Petite Grande in Gluttony, is dressed in black curtains and lit with fluorescent lights. This allows the performers and their props to glow in the eyes of the audience, whilst the performer dressed in black almost literally disappear into the background. As such, there are plenty of props that appear to float or lifted painted performers that look like they’re flying.
The body art is spectacular. Miller creates a unique and exciting pixie-like look for dancer, contortionist and hula hooping performer, Jess Bloom. But even more impressive was the slant on Pacman and similar retro games taken with the body art on juggler Chris Willshire. The show enacts a multileveled game where the character, played by Willshire, adds one ball to each level of juggling. This skill is also used for an impressive routine where circular wheels are juggled; glowing in the dark, but sometimes transforming to black and disappearing into the set.
Despite having a ‘Best Circus/Burlesque’ award, Luminous fails to captivate its audience in the way that one would expect. At an hour long, all acts are so drawn out they lose their initial effect, boring the audience. The lighting and body art, as spectacular and intriguing as it is, becomes the crutch for poor circus skills. The dance sections are confined to a small area, but still the space that is available is poorly used. The lifts are shaky, with the preparation and exit stages easily identifiable. There were many slip-ups and the dancers seemed uncertain. Even the juggling, which was largely creative and interesting, was lessened by the constant mistakes and endless routines.
Overall, Luminous was a disappointment and not one to recommend to friends. It had the ideas, but they were poorly executed and unrefined. Go and see Illuminate instead.
