Dance / All in by Dance Makers Collective with Project Dust, Apsaras Arts Canberra and Quantum Leap Australia. At The Theatre, Belconnen Arts Centre, until September 26. Reviewed by MICHELLE POTTER

All in from Dance Makers Collective, a Western Sydney-based company directed by Miranda Wheen, was first performed in Sydney early in 2025 and has since been touring to various locations, each time including dancers from various local companies.

The Canberra performances include dancers from the First Nations contemporary dance group Project Dust, the classical Indian group Apsaras Arts, and the youth group Quantum Leap Australia.

As the name of the work suggests, All in, choreographed by Wheen, focuses on the concept of connections.

After a short introduction in which performers from all groups are briefly seen together, the work proper begins with extraordinarily powerful dancing from seven dancers representing Dance Makers Collective. They twist and turn, jump and lean from side to side, make absorbing use of arms and hands, and interact in a choreographic sense with each other. It is a long sequence and the dancers continue to move with intensity while also making ongoing facial contact with the audience. They smile directly at individual people, inviting us to be involved (in an emotional sense). With the audience seated on two opposite sides of the performing space, the focus of the dancers moves from side to side so all audience members are involved.

Then follows performances by dancers from the Canberra groups, with the strongest input from the Apsaras Arts dancers working in Bharatanatyam style. Their dancing is exceptional and also takes into account the spread of audience members across the space. Their connection to the audience is made with invitingly beautiful eyes and lots of smiles, but also with the strength of their dancing and with the somewhat geometric structure of the work.

There is also a rather hilarious short section when a voice-over speaks about the nature of dance and the role it has in the life of some, including those who find it impossible to understand. This section is accompanied by efforts from dancers to show unusual aspects of movement.

But the highlight of the “all in” concept comes at the end of the show when the audience is invited to join the dancing. Pretty much the entire audience, young and old, rose from their seats and joined the dancers in the performing space. The space was not huge and was extraordinarily crowded, which however concerned no one. There were instructions for the people on the floor to follow, which were screened at one end of the theatre: “Go left”, “go right”, “make a circle”, “dance with the person next to you” and so forth. And everyone followed with enthusiasm.

All in is very much a show that does indeed connect with the audience.

In the Sydney showing there were also close connections between the dancers from the various groups, which unfortunately did not eventuate to the same extent in Canberra. I suspect this different focus reflected a lack of rehearsal time between the local groups and Wheen and her dancers. All in is nevertheless a show that is worth seeing, and in which it is fun to be involved.

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