Giddy, absurd, grounded, Chico Mambo’s TUTU is everything you didn’t know you needed

The dance world has a propensity to take itself perhaps a little too seriously. A typically stoic art form, whether it be ballet, contemporary, modern, or Graham, we revel in the sombre beauty of dance. While musical theatre itself succeeds in drawing out the joyful silliness of dance, through tap, Fosse, and so forth, more classical styles still find themselves wary of humour. TUTU arrives to turn this notion on its head. 

Choreography and artistic direction by the ingenious Philippe Lafeuille, TUTU revels in the unexpected. The production features a group of expressly male presenting dancers, clad in dancewear typically associated with female dancers. The show cycles through a variety of dances, each referencing a specific dance style. Each dance packs its own surprise; at no point could one anticipate what comes next. The dances are both choreographically beautiful and performed with insatiable skill, while also being genuinely funny. The dancers expertly mix slapstick humour with technical excellence, astonishing the audience with their multifaceted performance. The performers extend beyond the typical expectations of their chosen artform – they are comedians, actors, characters of note, all packaged within dance. To reveal much more would be to inhibit the delightful surprise that awaits any TUTU audience member.  

While silliness may be at the crux of this production, the overarching messaging brims with thematic groundedness. Gender socialisation, masculinity and its potentially toxic ideations, and the perception of male dancers by the public are among the themes that drive the production forward. This is especially relevant in the dance world. Professional dance, ballet in particular, traditionally abides by very strict and specific rules of gender. Men do not dance en pointe. Men and women wear very specific costumes, and men would most certainly not wear tutus. TUTU references and subverts these norms, disrupting the conventions of the Western dance industry. This act is not only accomplished through absurd humour, but additionally highlights how absurd these very conventions are. In TUTU, men dance en pointe, both with elegant precision and wincing in exaggerated pain. In TUTU, partners are not gendered, and roles ascribed to specific genders are not abided by. In TUTU, costumes surprise and delight, pushing back against socialisation. TUTU thematically achieves so much in a mere hour and twenty minutes, leaving an audience not only amused and delighted, but perhaps imbued with a new perspective. When you leave the Peacock Theatre, TUTU remains within you. You have been “TUTU-fied.”