Words by Florence Nicholls.
Dan Daw Creative Projects’ new work EXXY recently celebrated its world premiere at Battersea Arts Centre. Years in the making, EXXY is a hybrid performance that digs into the complex soil of belonging, self confidence and finding joy in an often exclusionary world. Together, the cast find an embodied solidarity solidarity and a route to keep moving. With rawness and courage, they make the statement loud and clear that “No one needs to survive on their own.”
To bring EXXY to life, Daw and the cast took a journey back to childhood, and the vast Aussie landscape where Daw grew up with his Nan. This landscape is their stomping ground where the cast deal in hilarity and heartbreak – and often all at once – around the saltbush. The saltbush, a plant that buries its roots in dry, rough ground, is a metaphor for resilience.
The cast started running, stomping to the pace of a bassy track. “Come on! This is easy, mate!” They called out to each other with breathless voices. Oxymoronically, the call implied a mocking put down and a gesture of reassuring encouragement. In every repetition I heard a new perspective. It’s something I might say; talking inwardly in a moment of self doubt to make whatever faces me seem less insurmountable.
The show was laced with addictive house music, club lights and bursts of high intensity movement, contrasting with moments of paired back sensitivity and deeply felt recollections from the cast’s own lives. Intertwined with the witty and eccentric stage production – including tennis ball cannons firing shots at an on-stage billboard advertisement the show, featuring a reclining, scantily clad Dan Daw – EXXY is rich in emotion and biographical truth.
In the audience, we were in fits of laughter, tears and karaoke singing at the top of our lungs to serenade the cast.
Dan Daw Creative Projects are touring EXXY across the UK over the coming weeks. The show is immersive and broadly accessible and contains plenty of memorable highlights. This work is as much a spectacular dance production as it is a well considered piece of theatre, drawing in on vast and varied forms. EXXY will leave you invigorated by a stellar movement performance and Daw’s irresistible flare for production making.