Angels With Dirty Feet at the Herald Theatre

By BERNADETTE RAE

Raewyn Hill is a choreographer going places. She has already taken Sydney by storm with When Love Comes Calling. And been invited back. There is another important invitation in the offing, to New York.

Auckland has seen only a smattering of Wellington-based Hill's recent work. Angels With Dirty Feet - a study of drug addiction, stunning, gorgeous and chilling in equal measures - is the best we have seen so far.

Five dancers and two actors, in identical spartan grey tops and black trousers, work on a stage where the only props are a forest of schoolroom chairs and a growing pile of wooden crosses.

There is not even the embellishment of the usual lighting. No embellishment is needed.

We are captivated from the opening moments, in which the performers introduce themselves in hilarious fashion before launching into a highly hammed-up version of Welcome to Our World.

Sarah Sproull, Craig Bary, Paora Taurima, Claire Lissaman, Gabrielle Thomas, Edwin Wright and Nathan Meister (Hill did not perform on opening night in Auckland) look like angels.

And Hill's inspired choreography has them move like angels - serene angels, stoned angels, repentant, devious, lying, manic, brutal and busted angels, desperate angels and dying angels, beautiful human angels caught in the horrible web of chemical crucifixion.

Hill has described the work as "droplets of images that describe states of feeling". There is no real narrative, but fragments of the story of one particular angel do emerge and bring a subtle sense of structure.

Music by Arvo Part, Frates and Spiegel Im Spiegel, with its hypnotic sound spirals and repetitions, drives much of the action.

The dialogue, witty, sharp, intense and wise, has benefited from playwright Duncan Sarkies' input as dramaturg.

The marvel is the way music, movement and spoken word meld perfectly and deliver a very powerful message.

There's the fact-filled Speech; the riotous Angel Derby with running commentary and extraordinary dancing; the captivating phone conversation between parent and addicted child in Angel, Are You Listening; and a whole lot more.

Angels With Dirty Feet is full of meaning and superbly performed.