There is something magical about entering an amusement park at night. The lights, the sounds, the promise of spectacle and the faint sense that anything might happen are all part of the attraction.
Melbourne’s Luna Park has been thrilling audiences since 1912, and now, with the newly restored Luna Palace providing a sumptuous new home for performance, Finucane & Smith have found a setting that could scarcely be more appropriate for their 30th anniversary.
For more than three decades, Finucane & Smith Unlimited, the Melbourne-based collective, has occupied a singular place in Australia’s cultural landscape, creating work that defies categorisation while embracing spectacle, beauty, provocation and joy. Dance Palace is an extravaganza worthy of the occasion: a celebration bringing together cabaret, music, burlesque, performance art, dance and circus in a gloriously unpredictable collision of artistic worlds.
The symmetry is irresistible. Finucane exploded onto Melbourne’s independent arts scene with Parlour Volatile, announcing the arrival of an artist who seemed determined to ignore every conventional boundary placed around performance. Audiences and critics struggled to categorise what they were seeing. Was it cabaret? Theatre? Burlesque? Performance art? Visual spectacle? The answer – all of the above!
Since then, Finucane and collaborator Jackie Smith have forged an extraordinary independent career, creating 36 major works, performing across 19 countries and reaching more than 160 Australian communities. More than one million people have encountered their distinctive brand of theatrical daring, while numerous awards have recognised an artistic practice that remains defiantly its own.
Dance Palace distils that philosophy into a single evening. It is less a conventional show than a wonderfully unruly celebration of everything Finucane & Smith represent. The company has always excelled at bringing artists and traditions together that might otherwise never share a stage, and here that instinct becomes the show’s greatest strength.
Under the creative direction of Queen Provocateur and iconoclast Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith, Dance Palace is a glorious collision of cabaret, burlesque, Butoh, circus, music, dance and performance art. Its remarkable cavalcade of performers brings together artistic worlds that rarely share the same stage, resulting in an evening of controlled chaos, dazzling virtuosity and wonderfully unpredictable theatricality.
At the heart of it all is Finucane herself, an irresistible force who moves effortlessly between autobiography, satire, performance art and outrageous theatricality. Her 30-year journey becomes material for the stage: her beginnings as an environmental scientist, her transformation into one of Australia’s most fearless performance provocateurs.
Finucane revisits some of the company’s most memorable moments, from the ingenious selling of Finucane & Smith underwear to help fund shows, to the humble meat pie, the importance of krill, tomato-soup performance art and her celebrated balloon act. Her great gift is her ability to make the profound and the ridiculous sit comfortably side by side. Nothing is too serious to mock, and nothing too absurd to celebrate.
Around her, an extraordinary ensemble creates one surprise after another. Mama Alto is magnificent, delivering everything from disco classics to an ethereal version of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides, Now and a beautifully restrained Blue Moon. Her voice possesses both power and intimacy, while her elegant stage presence makes every appearance memorable.
Maude Davey delivers one of the evening’s many highlights with Jacques Brel’s La Valse à Mille Temps, transforming the accelerating waltz into an inspired piece of clown theatre. Only to return in a wonderfully mischievous collaboration with Finucane and Yumi Umiumare in a cheeky homage to Hello Kitty that gradually mutates into something darker and distinctly Butoh. Umiumare is extraordinary: physically fearless and utterly unpredictable, capable of turning the familiar into the strange with a movement, a gesture or a look.
Maple Rose brings glamour and danger to the burlesque, Raksha Parsnani injects Bollywood energy, while Govind Pillai brings charisma and sensuality. Piera Dennerstein unleashes her formidable soprano, joined by Kate Foster, Mandeera Kosgahakumbura, Will Skaprona, Dave Johnson, Bendy Ben and Zitao Deng, each adding their own musical colour to the kaleidoscope.
Glennys Briggs brings a powerful connection to Country, and Ian Muir adds a wonderfully unexpected country-music presence to the mix. Even beloved Monkey (Kathryn Niesche) gets her moment in the spotlight with a stunning aerial performance. Throw in some Boot Scootin’ and the Nutbush, and somehow, in Dance Palace, it all makes perfect sense.
The newly restored Luna Palace is the ideal playground for this glorious disorder. With its arched windows and sweeping views, it provides an elegant setting for an evening that repeatedly tears up the rulebook.
Dance Palace is exactly what its name promises: a palace of performance, populated by extraordinary artists and ruled by imagination. Long may the Queen Provocateur reign!
Finucane & Smith’s Dance Palace
Luna Palace – Luna Park, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
Performance: Saturday 22 August 2026
Season continues to 12 September 2026 (Thursday – Saturday)
Bookings: www.trybooking.com
For more information, visit: www.finucaneandsmith.com for details.
Images: Moira Finucane – photo by Angel WL | Moira Finucane – photo by Angel WL | Moira Finucane – photo by Angel WL | Mama Alto and the Dance Palace Ensemble – photo by Angel WL | Raksha Parsnani – photo by Angel WL
Review: Rohan Shearn