Performers dance their way out of a video game in new Calgary show

Mark Kunji Ikeda and Richard Lee Hsi are the creative minds,and performing artists,behind 8-Bit: The Video Game Dance Show.

If you're a fan of classic video games, you'll know 8-bit games from the'70s '80s and '90s. From Donkey Kong to Double Dragon, Duck Hunt to Frogger, Space Invaders to Street Fighter, 8-bit games set the standard for all the games to come.

They also inspired a Calgary Fringe Festival hit in2013,which is now returning to the stage.

It's called 8 Bit: The Video Game Dance Show, created and performed by Mark Kunji Ikeda and Richard Lee Hsi.

"It's dance, theatre and comedy," Ikeda said.

The story involves twofeuding step-brothers who get trapped insidea vintage video game system. They have to danceand occasionally fighttheir way out.

The show, described ascontemporary dance wrappedinside a witty, original one-act play, opens Wednesday at the West Village Theatre in Calgary community of Sunalta.

"There is a story tying all these elements together," Hsi said. "They gettrapped in a killer video game system, and the convention of this video game system is that they have to dance these games. And so they have to dance their way out."

"We start with the most simple games, and the most simple dance," Ikeda said. "So we start with Pong, with very basic movements, and then we get more and more throughdifferent systems, until we grow in complexity from both in the dance, and with the music, and with the lights, until we're now going into Minecraft and Fortnite, and having thesemulti-player onlinegames that are very complex in terms of the dance."

Music matches dance

Calgary composer DarrenYoung was able to perfectly match the tone of the dance moves and the music.

"In past work,Darren has taken inspiration from symphonies, and he recomposed the New World Symphony for me," Ikedasaid. "So I knew that he would have the right tone when I asked him to take the flavour of video gamesand video game music."

Hsi said the music is a big part of what makes the show work.

"I love the video gamey-ness of it, along with the fact that it is also an original composition specifically composed for our choreography," Hsisaid. "So all the hits that you're hearing, the accents and themusic, are going along toan actual video game fight that we're having at that point in the show."

The dance moves are wide-ranging.

"It's mostly contemporary dance, some balletic moments, some hip-hop moments," Ikeda said. "It's a bit of everything in the way that we wanted different voices for different games."

Listen to the full interview on The Homestretch, including musical samples:

Catch the premiere of8 BIT: The Video Game Dance ShowApril 17at West Village Theatre.