Review by Steve Bennett

Daggy dancing, they call it where she comes from – and Tessa Waters believes it is the path to happiness.

Boldly dressed in gold sequinned leotard, the bold, brash Australian shimmies and twerks her way across the stage and, yes, gets us all involved too. There's a party going on in her show, and you're all invited.

All this spirited nonsense is in the service of celebrating body confidence. She flirts with intensity, smouldering as she asks: 'You guys wanna see what I can do with my body?' in one of the strangest accents around. Mind you, the origin story has WOMANz as the progeny of rock and the sun – so unusual enunciation is only to be expected with parents like that.  

A dynamic, uninhibited clown, Waters embraces the joy of trying the moves, unconcerned with any grace or poise in carrying them out. Don't care about looking the fool, just do it! A motto she warmly embraces as she throws herself into a silly Ride Of The Valkyries parody.

In spirit, WOMANz is a sister show to Louis Omielan's work, though the content is much less substantial. It certainly feels if some of the sections, especially the audience participation, are dragged out to fill the time. And although this has a different title to last year's offering, with the addition of the 'Jou're Welcome', this seems to be largely the same show from what I can tell from the 2014 write-ups.

But its comeback suggests a market for the fun spread when Waters gets everyone up on their feet to join in. Well, all except one stone-face man in this performance, implacably rooted to his seat, thousand-yard stare affixed, as 30 people danced their way around him. Now that's funny...

Review date: 15 Aug 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Gilded Balloon Teviot