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Dancers ‘Belong’ on the stage

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Emotional performance: Macey Cox. Photo by Djembe Archibald

Explore the intricacies of emotion, belonging and acceptance in the latest production from a local dance studio this weekend.

Featuring 36 dancers from Greater Shepparton, Awaken’s Belong includes video, music, lighting and special effects.

The show begins with four households dancing together before returning to their separate doors.

The concept was put together by the four assistant choreographers and principal dancers Makayla Bolitho, Macey Cox, Maddie King and Caly Mills.

The first household is choreographed by Makayla Bolitho, 15, and her theme is ‘Golden’, a loving and supportive household that she eventually must leave.

“My house is the stereotypical perfect house,” Makayla said.

“You’re so encouraging, like you want everyone to succeed, like there’s no-one letting you down.

“There’s four songs and the more it goes on, the more supportive it gets and then in the last song, I leave because I feel so supported, I’m ready to go explore the world.”

The second house is choreographed by Maddie King, 18, with a theme of ‘Neglect’, she taps into the antonyms of belonging, embracing the darker side of growing up.

“It’s the feeling of someone who has been neglected, who hasn’t really been supported that much and it becomes so much and so hard at home they end up leaving,” Maddie said.

“My character is not supported and she envisions other characters — negative people — telling her about how bad she is.

“The other dancers are like those visions that she sees and it’s like just in her mind and she ends up leaving home.”

The third house is choreographed by Caly, 17, and is centred around healing, a welcome place where openness is embraced and the broken are welcome.

“It’s basically about a place where people can go if they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Caly said.

“If they’re struggling, if they’re feeling broken, they can go to this house and they can be helped, they can be supported until they’re ready to go back off on their own.

“People let out their struggles and others echo movements and that to show more supportive, more empathetic stuff like that.”

The final house, choreographed by Macey Cox, 19, is titled ‘Misfits’, and focuses on the flip side of acceptance — how it feels to be disconnected from a group.

“It’s about how people don’t fit in to everything and that they should just try to be accepting of the fact they don’t fit in,” Macey said.

“She tries to find her place in this, in this house, and she’s rejected a lot but then eventually she finds her sense of belonging.

“She realises that she is okay being a misfit.”

The show, performed by talented local youth, promises to take audiences on a journey of love and fear through dance.

Have a sneak peak at what’s to come with pictures from a recent rehearsal.

Performance details

Date: Friday, August 25 and Saturday, August 26

Time: 7pm

Venue: Riverlinks WestSide, Echuca Rd, Mooroopna

Bookings: tinyurl.com/AwakenBELONG

Ticket prices: $27.50 to $37.50