The Lilian Baylis Studio, located within Sadler’s Wells, serves as a more intimate performance space within the theatre, which consistently showcases experimental and emerging dance works. We attended the UK premiere of DARK, HAPPY, to the CORE, presented by award-winning choreographer and movement director Marikiscrycrycry (Malik Nashad Sharpe). Marikiscrycrycry was named a Rising Star in Dance by Attitude Magazine in 2019 and in 2022 he was featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for art & culture. He is known for provocative and engaging performance works including Goner which was recently presented at the ICA. 

Marikisrycrycry usually works with ready-made music but for this work he chose to use an original composition based on a brief he gave Sydney-born artists Isla Bane and Protea. Much of the music was loud, cacophonous music, so much sothe audience felt powerful vibrations underfoot.

DARK, HAPPY, to the CORE is a three-act work that takes a boisterous peak at the study of the mythos of ecstasy and euphoria. Interestingly it was originally commissioned by the Roskilde Festival (Denmark’s equivalent to Glastonbury). For the first time the festival set up a stage for a dance performance. Choreographed in just nine days of rehearsals and shown 13 times at the festival it is a surprisingly intricate work.  Being set amongst all the music stages meant audiences would encounter the performance as they travelled between the music stages disrupting their normal festival path. Performed at random hours of the night or day their time slots where not always long enough to perform the piece in its entirety and festival goers would get to see just one of the three acts. The progression of the setting to the theatre means the audience is experiencing the performance in a very different way journeying through three distinct sections.    

The piece involves seven dancers, covering all walks of life. The thought process for each character began with “who might you encounter at a festival” as a result they would be able to move around the festival inconspicuously. The choreography was developed further, Marikiscrycrycry stated “because dance is a mirror of society, I worked with the dancers to draw out who they idolised and wanted to be when they were young. Pairing this with who they are today, we created archetypes and characters uniquely for each dancer.”: ‘The Goner’, ‘The Oracle’, ‘The Pop Star’, ‘The Athlete’, ‘Goth Chick’, ‘The Angel’ and ‘The Business Guy’. The dancers were involved in the development of their costumes together with designers Erik Annerborn and Acuarela Beard resulting in costumes that fully embraced each archetype.  

The work defends a certain kind of difference in a world where there is pressure to coalesce and be the same. Currently there is a concerning punishing of difference so Markiscrycrycry pushes for the opposite in his work.  In his post talk show he mentioned “it is really exciting when different people do their own thing next to each other and then those different people do the same thing but in a different way to each other.” He explained that he will always keep this element of difference in his work and that it is his little way of engaging politically in this awful moment. (We viewed this show the day after the election results in the US were announced).

As a member of the audience, I could sense these nuanced differences. They dance the same material but it in their own way and over the course of the hour you come to know each character’s way of moving and the spirit in which they dance.

We witnessed some stunning choreography beautifully danced on a pared back mostly black stage using simple effects of light and smoke to take you through ritual darkness to hardcore happy. The audience is immersed as dancers arrive and performed from the aisles as they approach the stage. A section triggered memories of Michael Jackson’s Thriller as they dance in a zombie trance like ensemble. A couple of times they are in a lineup against the back wall of the stage with each dancer expressing who they are. There is a euphoric build up as they all dance a frenzied box step to eventually collapse with heads in hands.  By the time the show ends you feel like you have been to an outrageous rave and on a roller coaster of emotions.

Date: 7 November 2024. Location:  Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Ave, London EC1R 4TN.  

With its focus on inclusivity, the Lilian Baylis Studio is worth keeping an eye on to enjoy future performances of interesting and collaborative works from both emerging and established artists. 

Review by Natascha Milsom