Norpa News

Dance the night away

A scene from the 2004 performance of Big Feet Little Feet, which returns for the fourth time in June. Photo: Graeme Batterbury

Warm up your blood with NORPA Dance Action's Big Feet Little Feet #4, the region's most exciting annual celebration of the body-in-motion.

Tickets go on sale this week for three shows, which bring together some of the region's hottest bods and most creative movers, shakers, shimmiers and hip hoppers.

This will be the fourth Big Feet Little Feet at Byron Bay Community Centre, and this year the theme is 'What's the Pointe?'

Artists include Kyogle's innovative Krinkle Theatre, The Frocks (who combine physical theatre and 50s style), passionate flamenco artist Juego, Virginia Norrie's Contact Earth Dance group and dancers from the Northern Rivers Conservatorium.

Through movement they will explore the meaning and evolution of one of humankind's oldest artforms and one that cuts across barriers of language, religion, culture, and ethnicity.

The locals who will be sharing their work range from cutting edge contemporary genre-benders to classical artists and others with distinct, and sometimes ancient, cultural roots.

Some pieces will make you laugh out loud; others will take you on a journey to places deep within the soul of the community.

All in all, it will be a living, breathing (and often sweating) display of the vibrant dance life thriving in this region.

Big Feet Little Feet #4 will be performed on June 3 at 8pm, and June 4 at 2pm and 8pm.

Tickets are $20/$16.50 (or $13 for school aged children for evening shows and $11 for matinee). They are available now from the Byron Community Centre, or phone 6685 5659.

If the whole idea of dance has got you motivated to shed a little sweat yourself, you can now pick up a copy of NORPA Dance Action's Dance Map - a guide to dance classes and other groove-related activities at Lismore City Hall or phone 6622 0300.

Events and giveaways

• Win a double pass to the opening night of Big Feet Little Feet at the Byron Bay Community Centre. Just tell us how dance makes you feel. Put your answer on the back of an envelope with your name, address and phone number, slip an Echo masthead inside and post it to: Move Me Groove Me! at NORPA, PO Box 225, Lismore, 2480, by Monday, May 30.
• Buy your ticket now for Zigzag Street, the La Boite production based on Nick Earls' award-winning novel. It's on at the Star Court on June 28 at 8pm and June 29 at 11am and 8pm. For bookings phone 6621 5600 or go to www.norpa.org.au. The winner of the double pass to Zigzag Street offered in last week's Echo is M Chawner of Lismore.
• Tickets are already selling for our mid-winter weekend of music, which is a star-studded celebration of cultural diversity. On Friday, July 22, Paul Capsis presents his new show; on July 23 Ruby Hunter, Archie Roach and Paul Grabowsky's Australian Art Orchestra perform Ruby's Story; and on July 24, H'Sao, a group originating from Chad in Africa and now based in Montreal, Canada, will fill City Hall with ecstatic global grooves. For tickets, act fast and phone 6621 5600 or go to www.norpa.org.au.