The horrific, painful condition of endometriosis (where uterine tissue grows outside the womb) might not sound like an obvious subject for a dance piece. Or if it were, you may imagine it as something serious, abstracted in its depiction of pain, or tenderly uplifting as its sufferer battles through. Not for Australian dancer and choreographer Liz Lea. She wants to show us something else about her journey with the condition; and it’s bonkers, brilliant and completely defiant of any category you might try to box it into. 

Red serves up the kind of surreal and life-affirming qualities of womanhood found in Almodóvar films, or perhaps in drag shows. Wearing a sequinned and feathered gown, Lea talks to her 13-year old self, revels in showgirl routines, and lip-synchs to ‘Lady In Red’ (acting out a hallucination she had while high on codeine after having had intense, painful surgery). She brings out backing dancers from the PRIME dance company for the over 60s and creates a tribute to the beauty and spirit of older women (and one man).

^{Pictures: Lorna Sim}

Throughout this, voiceovers are interspersed from Lea’s doctor, who describes in visceral detail the agony of the condition (at one time she was taking ten Nurofen before lunch) and short films, which show Lea with a kind of idealised carefree zen, dancing in water or against oceanic backdrops. She meditates on the idea that life takes us on a very different path to the one we grow up expecting to travel down, but that is no bad thing.

In the final scene all her unbridled cavorting is concentrated into an exquisite solo; in Louboutins and a black dress she embodies the class and sensuality of a woman in her 50s, and we see how wise and graceful she has grown to be. Liz Lea is a generous, frank and gutsy performer and it is massively moving to see just how many of the older women in her audience go wild with the joy of suddenly being seen, understood, celebrated. More of this please. 

Dance Base, until 28 August, 2.50pm.