Review: Haus of YOLO is magically mesmerising and thrillingly dangerous

Prepare to be stunned by the thrillingly dangerous acrobatics in the show. Photo / Supplied

The Dust Palace's Haus of YOLO provided the perfect finale to the Right Royal Cabaret Fest, which ended on Sunday, August 1.

The Dust Palace, New Zealand's own contemporary cirque company, treated their audience to a unique spectacular show, that combined circus acrobatics with speed sewing set against a party soundtrack.

Premiering for the first time at an arts festival, the show was a fast-paced display of some serious aerial skills and displays of strength and balance by the four performers. Watching the costumes being created on stage during the show added to the drama, with some turning out perfect and others, not so much. Those hilariously imperfect costumes added beautifully to the overriding sense of fun and imagination the show channels so well. All four performers demonstrating their skills not just in the physicality required for the acrobatics, but also their ability to adapt, change and react as the live show took a direction all of its own.

The premise of the show is that we are watching a fashion designer at work, but the cleverness of this simple premise takes the show to a level as high as some of the aerial tricks we see the "sexy love puppets" perform during it.

Each of the four performers play the role of the designer as well as the aforementioned sexy love puppets, with the simple device of putting on a specific jacket transforming each into the designer when it is their turn. The putting on of a jacket may be simple, but even that moment is elevated as the performers make passing the jacket over an art form of its own, with their physicality and grace making it feel more like a dance, than a costume change.

The spectacular aerial performances and the seemingly gravity defying body balancing acts are the perfect props in the telling of a narrative that is about more than just a fashion show. The imperfection of fast fashion is perfectly highlighted in this fun show that is packed with high energy, thrillingly dangerous acrobatics and a perfectly put together soundtrack.

The show is flamboyant, evocative, exquisitely breath-taking and quite simply magical. It is everything you might expect from The Dust Palace, and in other ways it is like nothing you could ever imagine. It has to be seen to be believed, so let's hope the show turns up at many more arts festivals and cabarets in the future.