Dance Floor Divas

This presentation was the ultimate guilty pleasure …for me, anyway! Stage Squad’s summer revue, a compilation of dance floor diva classics. Conceptually, it’s everything it says on the tin which is refreshing to see amongst the current fad of intricate themes and attempts to go excessively inventive with concert concepts that are almost impossible for an audience to grasp what it’s all actually about. Here, Stage Squad kept it straight forward, you’d know from the title of the piece if it was something you’d enjoy or not which is, in my book, the most virtuous approach for targeting your audience.  

 

The presentation was centred around four principal vocalists taking the lion’s share of the programme – Danni, Dawn, Susan & Zoe who treated us to a catalogue of diva hits from across recent decades. This quartet certainly exposed some impressive pipes with some big belter numbers, showing the solo vocal talent that this group has to offer. For a venue as intimate as Squad House and considering the scale of the project (and its budget) it was, as expected, all performed to track which was probably the finest option making the process of piecing the production together much easier.

 

In the centre of the audience was a dancefloor which some members of the audience took advantage of, a few more glasses of red and I don’t think I’d have resisted joining in!

 

The cast was made up of both experienced and raw talent, one vocalist in particular took her time to relax and settle in to the spotlight. I absolutely concur that it’s incredibly daunting and exposing to perform solo in a concert environment, this individual has got a strong voice yet I sensed she didn’t believe in herself as much as she should. Everyone in attendance was rooting for her and wholly supportive which is exactly what she needed, as soon as she overcomes her reservations I have no doubt she’d be able to take her performance to another level and exude the fearless Diva persona she absolutely ought to.       

 

What performance of this nature would be complete without some choreo!? It didn’t need me to look in the programme to know that the role of choreographer had been shared. For the most part it was slick, tight and well executed with vibrant energy from the cheesy ‘all smiles’ disco flair to the fierce and more spicy influenced genres.

I’ve probably mentioned something to this effect in a previous Stage Squad review before so I’ll apologise now for humming (or should that be belting) the same tune, however it feels wholly relevant to say it again regardless…  Stage Squad have a prominent business acumen behind how they operate which is what theatre groups need to adopt if they’re to survive in today’s market. Shows such as these are principally a fundraiser to support the meatier projects of the company and this is proof that such undertakings need not be the ball ache they’re so often referred to. If their approach could be bottled we'd make a bundle!   

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