There was no need to reflect, I can say straight away that this was a fantastic evening of contemporary dance.

The concept of this show was straight forward. There was a vignette of scenes/dance sequences created around the songs on Hayden Tee’s album, ‘Generation Why? Live’.

This was an inspired choice for this superb troupe of wonderfully fit and athletic dancers.

Please let me fill in the gaps for you in case you don’t know about Hayden Tee. Originally from New Zealand, Tee is one of the premiere Australian music theatre performers. He is currently performing as Javert in Les Mis at the Capitol Theatre.

His album ‘Generation Why? Live’ is a superb collection of pop standards that Tee immaculately delivers. Here is the song list- In The Air Tonight, Sailing/Orinoco Flow, Time After Time, Slice of Heaven, Through The Barricades, Video Killed The Radio Star, The Only Home I Know, 99 Luft Balloons, Walking On Sunshine, You Were There, From This  Day/From This Moment, Don’t Dream It’s Over, Creep/Every Breath You Take, Proud of Your Boy, Man In The Mirror.

Alyssa Casey with some helpers listed in the program gave each of those songs a dramatic, well realised treatment with her vibrant choreography and costuming. Casey worked around the Generation Y theme. Again to fill in the gap for those not in the know- Generation Y includes those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. The main traits attributed to this generation..they tend to be self indulgent, introspective, believe the world owes them a living, are very IT savvy and have information load. Yes, heaps and heaps to work with….and the show’s title was more than appropriate…plenty of work with mirrors!

The wonderful troupe of young dancers all came from the Lee Academy  Full Time Course. They were Brianna Hatter, Bryony Munro, Caitlin Drysdale, Cassandra Clarke, Danni Hegarty, Emma Macpherson, Georgie Walsh, Lucas Hughes, Michael Stone, Natasha Clancy, Ryan Ophel, Tasmin Cumnmins and Zac Smith.

They were able to easily incorporate very different approaches to the material  from dark pieces such as Through The Barricades to the lyricism of Every Breath You Take and Time After Time to the light and breezy and super colourful  99 Luft Balloons and Walking On Sunshine.

This was a genuine treat. I left the theatre feeling like I was walking on moonbeams!

Primal Dance Company’s presentation of REFLECTIONS played for one night only, on Monday 12th October, at the King Street, Newtown.