Jo'burg dance pick: September 30 2011

Veteran choreographer Mark Hawkins collaborated at this year’s Dance Umbrella with Moving into Dance Mophatong to ­create a whacky, colourful piece titled Hotel.

It perfectly fits the artists’ own description of their work as “witty and atmospherically dark”.

Hawkins drew inspiration from French poet Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem of the same name and incorporated music by contemporary composer Philip Miller. The resulting mixture is surreal, with fabulous moments of virtuoso contemporary movement. The off-the-wall antics of the hotel denizens are steeped in tongue-in-cheek humour, yet there is nothing self-indulgent in the explorations of this youthful company. 

Main Theatre, the Market Theatre Complex, Newtown, until October 9. Tel: 011 823 1641.