We gave Red Bull Flying Bach dancer Uwe Donaubauer, a South African, an impossible task: Name the one moment that’s the highlight in the show. “There’s so many!” he tells us. “At some points, there are unbelievable movements; at some other points, there is a lot of humor. So throughout the show, there shouldn’t be anything missed.”
We admit it, Uwe, that was a trick question. We know the fast-paced breakdancing-set-to-classical-music show is actually one highlight after another. And just as the audience thinks, “That’s the most amazing dancing I’ve ever seen,” one of the b-boys will spin on his head at warp speed or do a back-breaking flip across the stage that leaves everyone drop-jawed.
The Red Bull Flying Bach show, coming for the first time ever to Houston, is set to J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. There’s a loose plotline. “A crew is doing a full rehearsal at the studio in preparation for their big day,” Donaubauer says. “Preludes and fugues set the tone. Through arguments, fights, disappointments and delights, the moods and steps of the dancers change constantly — much like the highs and lows of the notes.”
Donaubauer has traveled the world with the Red Bull Flying Bach show. It’s been an unexpected career.
“You are not waking up as a kid and saying, ‘I want to dance in an extraordinary breakdance show.’ But honestly, the first time I tried breakdance for myself — after seeing a group of breakdancers in the street — I never wanted to do anything else. And after [Red Bull Flying Bach] asked me if I wanted to join. It didn’t take me a second to say yes! In the show, we are combining different breakdance and hip-hop styles as contemporary dance.”
Back to our trick questions. We press Donaubauer — okay, if you can’t name just one highlight to the show, do you have a favorite moment as a performer? That one he can answer. “I really love the energy of the finale when we are all dancing together and showing our special individual moves.”
7:30 p.m. October 13, 14 and 15; 8 p.m. October 17; and 1 p.m. October 18. Wortham Theater Center — Cullen Theater, 501 Texas. For information, call 832-487-7041 or visit houstonfirsttheaters.com. $40.50 to $70.50.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2015.