A Compagnie Käfig production. A DanceHouse presentation. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Friday, April 10. Continues April 11

French choreographic sensation Mourad Merzouki has had no trouble explaining what attracted him to the Brazilian dancers who set Vancouver on fire last night.

It was their faces, he told the Straight recently, noting that their sense of joy and excitement connects directly with audiences. 

Merzouki credits this spirit to his dancers rising above and beyond the impoverished favelas where they grew up.

Compagnie Käfig's 11 wildly coiffed players definitely had the moves Friday night, tearing things up with a loose mixture that’s heavy on hip-hop with capoeira, samba spice, and contemporary flow—not to mention a bit of slapstick. But, sure enough, it was their expressions that built so much intensity and connection with the viewers who jumped to an extended round of standing Os.

Even though things were pretty much gripping during the troupe’s entire hour on-stage, it was the end of the night that wowed the most. Käfig Brasil built to an ecstatic crescendo where the performers stood shuffling to the throbbing beat, staring the audience down, shaking their heads and throwing out their arms to each pulse of music. 

As an added bonus, the troupe turned its curtain call into a wild breaking battle of back flips and head spins that spilled across the stage and, eventually, up the aisles past a madly clapping and whooping audience. 

Somehow, Merzouki's Compagnie Käfig has managed to transport the energy and competition of hip-hop to the theatrical stage. Choreographed by Merzouki and a host of French and Brazilian talents, as well as the dancers themselves, Käfig Brasil aims to do more than capture the spirit of old-school B-boy battles. 

There are also generous hits of Brazilian martial arts, acrobatics, and samba. The bowed musical-percussion instrument the berimbau, also integral to capoeira, plays a central role early on, providing unearthly rhythms. The berimbau’s shape is also playfully reflected in the gourd-and-stick-like lighting that lines either side of the stage.

Throughout the evening, Compagnie Käfig flips back and forth quickly from synchronized, almost jazzlike numbers to the frenetic chaos of freestyle. Reflecting the fact that Compagnie Käfig runs on more than ride-the-lightning energy, some moments are conceptual, too, with the show opening on dancers huddled into a silhouette against a Rio-sun-yellow screen, their articulated fingers writhing out like the tentacles of some pulsing paramecium.

This isn't dance that's too polished or exacting, but that's what connects it to the street. The company’s strength is its raw, masculine power, unleashed in busy toprocks spliced with idiomatic gestures, with sudden dives into whirling downrocks. The dance is set to a driving mix of the performers’ own a capella sounds, electro beats, and even Antonio Vivaldi.

Käfig Brasil ultimately wins over the crowd with its cool, street-savvy cultural hybrid. This is dance so unabashedly accessible and electric that it gets Vancouver's normally staid arts audiences out of their seats and screaming like it's Carnival time in Rio. If you're in need of a little Brazilian heat, the party ends tonight.