Brighton Festival 2025
Happy Hype
Collectif OUINCH OUINCH with DJ Mulah
Genre: Dance
Venue: The Dance Space South East Dance
Festival: Brighton Festival
Low Down
Straight outta Geneva, Switzerland, Collectif QUINCH QUINCH invites you to get on up. An hour and some of exuberant dance and tunes performed with mind-blowing skill. Exceptional as they are, the dancers have a wonderfully inclusive approach that pulls everyone into their orbit; the audience seems to wear a communal grin from the opening entrance through the foyer.
Presented by Brighton Festival in partnership with South East Dance. A UK premiere.
Conception and choreography: Karine Dahouindji, Marius Barthaux (current artistic directors) with Simon Crettol, Nicolas Fernando Mayorga Ramirez, Maud Hala Chami
Perfomance: Karine Dahouindji, Marius Barthaux, Elie Autin, Adél Juhász, Collin Cabanis, DJ Mulah
Review
From now on the mark of a great dance work is when there’s a hook-up on the dance floor*. When the company joins you on the dance floor despite have performed an hour of exhilarating, high energy choreography. When the choreography and music ranges across eras, styles and cultures but remains tightly within the club scene. When that music is mixed live by DJ Mulah, herself a mover of some distinction, and who conducts from her podium the five dancers here to thrill us.
Each body has its own particular range of movement from gymnastic to elastic (Karine Dahouindji), funky to expressionistic (Marius Barteux) and each has its moment in the limelight for a particular song. Each song tells a story, lyrics occasionally sung. Whether moving in formation or dancing through the crowd there’s the beat, driving it all along. Exceptional as they are, the dancers have a wonderfully inclusive approach that pulls everyone into their orbit; the audience seems to wear a communal grin from the opening entrance through the foyer. In diaphanous skirts and fluffy bucket hats they are a mix of ancient and modern, soon stripping down to gear more practical for a sweaty club night with Saweetie’s Best Friend playing loud.
The collective, who devise the choreography together, describe the Quinch as “little fashion fairy-sorceresses”, mischievous and ridiculous who with their infectious, raw presence seek to seduce us. Addressing the audience directly, dancing around and through us, giving us the eye, with incredible spacial awareness, Happy Hype is an electrifying experience and sexy as F. If they are ever in your neighbourhood – next stop Bradford – do yourself a favour and join the party. QUINCH QUINCH are the living proof that dance does you good, however you move.
*just kidding, though it really did happen.
