Bahala/o

Bahala/o, created and directed by Buddy Malbasias, is a performance that greets you mid breath, mid ritual, mid mess, and invites you to surrender to its beautiful motto of surrender: ‘whatever happens, happens’. What unfolds is a genre slipping, culturally rich, lovingly chaotic feast of contemporary movement, rave culture, diasporic storytelling and rice. A great deal of rice (enough to make a chef weep and an installation artist applaud).

The performance space is already alive as the audience takes their seats, arranged in a horseshoe around a stage carpeted in rice. The two performers, the affable Malbasias and the magnetic Clare Dark, are already at work, sweeping the grain with straw brooms while chatting warmly with arriving patrons. It is a deceptively casual overture, an invitation to intimacy and an unspoken permission to step into a welcoming environment rather than observe from a distance.

When the hessian jumpsuits come off, the work shifts gear instantly. The white costumes beneath, also designed, cut and made by Aeron Maevin, transform with movement. Long ties flutter and snap like kinetic brushstrokes and amplify every gesture as Malbasias and Dark launch into a high energy, rave infused contemporary dance sequence.

EDM pulses through the room, but composer Ellen King and Contributing sound artist DJ Love give the score a layered, surprising texture, weaving rave beats with glitches and playful fragments. The dancers’ shoulders snap, feet ball change, and strings whip through the air. The choreography moves with remarkable confidence between bravura technique and oddly familiar gestures that echo childhood, family kitchens, playground games, and club dance floors. It’s like we’re inside a surreal dance club and memory scrapbook.

Their technique is superb. Malbasias and Dark work with flexible leg extensions, smooth hip rotations, expressive arms, deft tempo shifts and floorwork that rolls like water. Even their breath becomes part of the score, an audible presence that punctuates and intensifies the action. They share an electric rapport, the kind of unspoken trust that allows for fast partnering, sudden catches and a satisfying push and pull dynamic that feels as natural as conversation.

The visual architecture of the piece is shaped with great sensitivity by lighting designer and operator Briana Clark. Shifts from deep blue to molten gold to clean white signal changes of emotional temperature, and later, a vivid wash of magenta, cyan and yellow transforms the space into a pulsing disco vision. The lighting never overwhelms the performers. Instead it frames them and heightens the emotional rhythm of each vignette.

The work unfolds in rapid snapshots, each a compact universe. A silent sweeping sequence gives way to a surreal demonstration on how to cook rice, which dissolves into a multilingual piece of character and genre switching, choreographic mischief. At moments the performers appear almost deity like, multi armed and mythic, at others they lampoon familiar personality types. The music and light shift in perfect tandem, and the room feels alive in a way that is rare in works that move so quickly.

The Budots inspired runway sequence is an undeniable highlight. Dark and Malbasias strut through a cloud of smoke with exaggerated poses and wickedly funny facial expressions that skewer high fashion while celebrating its theatricality. It is bold, sweaty, absurd and hilarious, and the audience responds with delighted cheers.

Audience interaction is part of the show’s chemistry. The gentle teasing from the opening grows into bolder invitations, including the bags of rice beneath the front row seats which we’re encouraged to throw at the performers. Soon rice is flying towards the stage from every angle while Malbasias shouts, “I love rice”. It is anarchic, unhinged, and strangely joyful, a reminder that the work is as much about connection as commentary.

Then the mood shifts to an unexpectedly earnest finale; a slow motion crawl race that turns time viscous. Malbasias collapses mid crawl, Dark continues, reaches the end, and drags the stage fan back to the start, the trailing yellow extension cord forming a an exclusive lane for each of them across the floor.

She takes her broom and begins to clean only her side of the stage. Rice scatters and whispers, the fan hums, and the imbalance becomes impossible to ignore. Malbasias rises again and dances once more, but the contrast is stark. Dark’s side of the stage ends spotless. His remains scattered. The symbolism is pointed and quietly devastating without slipping into heavy handedness.

What elevates Bahala/o beyond its playful inventiveness is the absolute commitment of its performers. Malbasias and Dark give everything, physically and emotionally, to each moment. There is no hesitation, no visible self consciousness, no ironic distance. They believe entirely in the world they are creating, and because they believe, the audience follows without question.

Malbasias’ direction shapes the fragments with a cohesive and intuitive sensibility, trusting imagery and rhythm over literal explanation. This confidence is matched by King’s sonic landscape, Clark’s thoughtful lighting and Maevin’s striking costumes, each of which strengthens the overall vision.

Bahala/o is a reminder of why independent dance theatre remains vital. It risks. It plays. It speaks to cultural identity without flattening it. It invites the audience to sit comfortably inside discomfort, to laugh, to think and to feel.

Bahala/o is a testament to the power of two performers who refuse to give even one per cent less than everything they have. They may say whatever happens, happens, because with artists like these, what happens is genuinely unforgettable.

Kitty Goodall

Photography by Georgia Haupt