Tessa Waters: WOMANz @ Underbelly

This is a power session of dancing and sexual confidence from a one-woman dynamo. Expect plenty of audience involvement. This comedy dance performance tricks everyone in the room, somehow, into joining in on stage for some very freeing ass-shaking.

Tessa Waters, an Australian comic and performer, emerges to a theatrical bit of mythological nonsense to explain the birth of her character WOMANz – the lovechild of universal elements of earth and the galaxy. She comes onstage in a burst of jiggling thighs, glittery burlesque-ish costume, and dance music. Somehow the mystical progeny of the nature gods is a buxom Spanish-accented over the top club dancer, but the audience goes with it – it’s hard not to. With her flawless accent, her entrancing confidence in a skin-tight leotard, she’s a mock motivational speaker that the audience unwittingly buys. Without even trying, she entices everyone in the room onstage, and soon has them crunking away and giggling.

The show is an exceptionally fun and light-hearted 40 minutes. She winks at the over seriousness of theatre, artists, female self-image, and firm butts. It’s a breezy and high energy show that goes by quickly – a bit too quickly. Some random threads of the show start off strong – like her mythological birth – but then are tossed aside. The abruptness of this is funny, but the show could be a lot more than a couple of loose intermingling threads.

WOMANz is a warm-hearted and endearing . She will make you want to invite her out clubbing in skin-tight sequins, with some 3am cake-binging afterward.