Fringe review: Djuki Mala

Adelaide Fringe

The five accomplished dancers of Djuki Mala fuse traditional Yolngu dance with contemporary pop culture to create an hilarious, charming and high-energy mix that surpasses all expectations. ★★★★★

Tuesday March 06, 2018 Comments

Comments Print article

Djuki Mala (from Elcho Island) first came to attention as The Chooky Dancers in 2007, when a video of them dancing to “Zorba the Greek” went viral on YouTube, and they have since performed all over the world.

Footage on a big screen in The Factory at the Garden of Unearthly Delights illustrates the troupe’s background and through this the audience gets some understanding of where the ideas and inspiration for the show originate. The performance is not overtly political, but it is intensely sad to hear about so many family members taken before their time and young people overloading on sugar before finding dance as their medium of expression.

The group starts off dancing in traditional Aboriginal body paint, to traditional music, using the familiar mimicking of animals in their dance. However, they soon change into golden Bollywood fashion with turbans and aviator glasses, pulling off some seriously different moves.

Through a range of costume changes, the performers dance their way through “Singing in the Rain”, complete with twirling umbrellas, to Michael Jackson and hip-hop. The music is terrific, especially for an ’80s kid like myself, and very well arranged. There is not a dull moment here!

All the dancers clearly enjoy themselves on stage and their joy is infectious. They clown around, poke out their tongues and wriggle their hips to the audience’s delight. It’s loud and proud, ending with a standing ovation.

If you are after entertainment with plenty of skill, fun and charm, and are finding it hard to choose what to see at the Fringe, you can’t go past the brilliant Djuki Mala.

Djuki Mala are preforming in the Garden of Unearthly Delights until March 18. Read more InDaily Fringe reviews and stories here.

Make a comment View comment guidelines

Jump to next article

Support local arts journalism

Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.

Donate Here

Comments

Show comments

Will my comment be published? Read the guidelines.

. You are free to republish the text and graphics contained in this article online and in print, on the condition that you follow our republishing guidelines.

You must attribute the author and note prominently that the article was originally published by InReview. You must also inlude a link to InReview. Please note that images are not generally included in this creative commons licence as in most cases we are not the copyright owner. However, if the image has an InReview photographer credit or is marked as “supplied”, you are free to republish it with the appropriate credits.

We recommend you set the canonical link of this content to https://inreview.com.au/inreview/adelaide-fringe/2018/03/06/fringe-review-djuki-mala/ to insure that your SEO is not penalised.

<h1>Fringe review: Djuki Mala</h1>

The five accomplished dancers of Djuki Mala fuse traditional Yolngu dance with contemporary pop culture to create an hilarious, charming and high-energy mix that surpasses all expectations. ★★★★★

																		<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/anna-solding/" class="author">Anna Solding</a></address>
											
							Djuki Mala (from Elcho Island) first came to attention as The Chooky Dancers in 2007, when a video of them dancing to “Zorba the Greek” went viral on YouTube, and they have since performed all over the world.
Footage on a big screen in The Factory at the Garden of Unearthly Delights illustrates the troupe’s background and through this the audience gets some understanding of where the ideas and inspiration for the show originate. The performance is not overtly political, but it is intensely sad to hear about so many family members taken before their time and young people overloading on sugar before finding dance as their medium of expression.
The group starts off dancing in traditional Aboriginal body paint, to traditional music, using the familiar mimicking of animals in their dance. However, they soon change into golden Bollywood fashion with turbans and aviator glasses, pulling off some seriously different moves.
Through a range of costume changes, the performers dance their way through “Singing in the Rain”, complete with twirling umbrellas, to Michael Jackson and hip-hop. The music is terrific, especially for an ’80s kid like myself, and very well arranged. There is not a dull moment here!
All the dancers clearly enjoy themselves on stage and their joy is infectious. They clown around, poke out their tongues and wriggle their hips to the audience’s delight. It’s loud and proud, ending with a standing ovation.
If you are after entertainment with plenty of skill, fun and charm, and are finding it hard to choose what to see at the Fringe, you can’t go past the brilliant Djuki Mala.
Djuki Mala are preforming in the Garden of Unearthly Delights until March 18. Read more InDaily Fringe reviews and stories here.
							This article is republished from <a href="https://inreview.com.au" target=_blank rel="canonical">InReview</a> under a Creative Commons licence. Read the <a href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/adelaide-fringe/2018/03/06/fringe-review-djuki-mala/" target=_blank rel="canonical">original article</a>.
							<link href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/adelaide-fringe/2018/03/06/fringe-review-djuki-mala/" rel="canonical">

<a href="https://inreview.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InReview</a> is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can <a href="https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000008PVN/inreview-sa-20222023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support our work with a donation</a>. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter <a href="https://inreview.com.au/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
							<img src="https://inreview.com.au/pixel2.png?cc_article=fringe-review-djuki-mala" width="1" height="1">

Copied to Clipboard