The cast and creatives of Australian dance show All Fired Up: An 80’s Mixtape Musical are gearing up for their first international performance, set to take place at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025.
Performing at Assembly George Square Studios (Studio One) while at the Fringe, the show is the brainchild of theatre makers Roz Pappalardo and Rachel Terry. After a 40-venue tour of Australia, they are now ready to empower individuals, particularly women over 40, through dance in the UK.
Recently, Terry sat down with Dance Informa to discuss the show.
Where did the idea for the show come from?
“Roz Pappalardo and I are in our mid-40s. And we’re at that point in life where we think, ‘What’s next?’ When we first started the show [Winner of the Best Theatre Award 2023 at the Adelaide Fringe], I had a 15-year-old daughter. And she was/is at the precipice of ‘The world is her oyster’. And I was just like, ‘Why can’t that be at any age? Why is it reserved for youth?’ So, we set about writing this show about a woman who finds her passion and purpose in her mid-40s, going through perimenopause/menopause now.
I was a dancer when I was younger. And so, our protagonist, Tammy Tooth, finds herself travelling back in time to 1987, face-to-face with her 15-year-old self who is listening to music on the radio. Through time spent with herself, she realises what’s missing in her life — it’s music and dance. And so, she returns to the present day, 2025, to become an 1980s aerobics instructor. I now also teach ’80s dance classes, which started after we created the show. So, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Your daughter is also starring in the show. How has it been performing alongside her?
“My best mate and I wrote it together, but it’s my daughter who plays 15-year-old me. So, being able to share this whole experience with her has been something I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
Tell us about your Australian tour?
“We’re in Cairns, right at the top of Australia, and our tour started in Brisbane at the Brisbane Festival before we received an Arts Queensland grant, which allowed us to tour that state in 2023. Following that, we received a Creative Australia grant, which enabled us to tour Western Australia. Then we went down to Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, and Darwin. We have covered every state and territory in Australia. It’s been a wild, wild ride.”
Are you making any changes for a UK audience?
“I have reviewed the top songs from the 1980s in the UK ahead of the tour. When we performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, we had to condense our show to an hour; it is staying that length. For that, we cut Wham’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, and there is no way we’re cutting that song for a UK audience. There are going to be a couple of songs that are changed, for example, Kylie Minogue was massive in the UK, where she was big-ish [in Australia]. But, you know, not if you wanted to be cool.”
Why do you think the show has been so popular?
“Dance has always been part of my life. However, introducing or reintroducing the power of dance and how it can bring joy to our Community Dancers [pre-selected local dancers who take part in the show] and audiences has been amazing.
You don’t have to be 15 to enjoy it. We can be the age we are and enjoy that music and nostalgia. We are using that nostalgia to propel dancers forward and inspire them to be aspirational. It’s been such a magical journey.
I think for them [Community Dancers], a lot of them aren’t performers or dancers, but to be able to introduce them to the theatre and to be able to come up on stage and dance and get that buzz, it’s been really, really special. Before we arrive in a show town, we send the local dancers, who will feature in the show, videos of the dance they need to learn. Then, we teach them the routines when we arrive, and they’re basically on stage the next night.
We’ve formed lasting connections with some of them, to the point that dancers in Albany, a tiny town in Western Australia, on the other side of the country from us, held a fundraiser for us to come to Edinburgh. They had an ’80s dance night, and although we didn’t know these women very well at all, the show moved them so much that they then took it upon themselves to fundraise for us.
We’ve another woman who has contacted us; she’s going to come to Edinburgh for two weeks from Canberra. We were in Canberra for 48 hours, and now she’s coming over to join us for the show. I feel very blessed to have made those connections with those women. It’s really beautiful.”
Who completes the cast?
“We have a four-piece band plus our singer. There are 10 of us coming over, which is our core group, and then I believe there are an additional 10 dancers from Australia who will be joining us at various times throughout the month. We’re also holding workshops throughout the month we’re there and inviting the Edinburgh community to get involved. We will be holding workshops and going, ‘Hey, do you want to come and be in the show for this week?’
I have my dance class on Tuesday nights over here, and that’s been going on for about two-and-a-half years now. And five of the women from my dance class are flying themselves over, like paying for everything themselves, just to come and dance in the show for two weeks, because it’s an experience they never normally would have had.”
All Fired Up plays at Assembly George Square Studios (Studio One), 30 July – 25 August 2025 (not 12 or 19 August). For more information, visit assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/923-all-fired-up-an-80s-mixtape-musical.
By Jamie Body of Dance Informa.
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