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The New Zealand School of Dance centres students in their 2023 choreographic season AXIS; dance and drama students support the third-year contemporary stream dancers throughout the production providing costume design, construction, lighting realisation, and deliberately choreographed stage crew. Eight unique short works (5 – 8 minutes each)... Keep Reading
The Royal New Zealand Ballet celebrates its 70th Anniversary in 2023, a truly magnificent achievement reflecting the extraordinary talent and determination of the artists and crew, past and present, who have fuelled the consistent delivery of productions of remarkable quality. It is an anniversary made all the more impressive for being... Keep Reading
A decade of boundary-breaking contemporary dance culminates in ‘Stage of Being’ by The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC). In what they describe as a “full circle moment”, the company’s powerful new double bill sees dance-makers who have a rich history with NZDC create once again with ‘LittleBits and AddOns’ from founding member... Keep Reading
LIMITS by Bonnie Curtis Projects is billed as dance and comedy, although the performance presents as physical theatre/performance art. An introspective and confident work, Curtis appears as the character “Grotesque Creature” in her self-described “stereotypically hot body”. LIMITS explores Grotesque Creature’s attempts to strive... Keep Reading
In her new work for the New Zealand Dance Company: What They Said, Australian choreographer Jo Lloyd uses subtle humour to create her exposition on the impact that words can have on people. It is an exuberant romp of a work, performed by a sterling group of dancers – the company augmented to seven - who parade, preen and pose in an... Keep Reading
FOR BY FOUR New Zealand School of Dance 26 May 2022 , Bats Theatre Wellington Reviewed by Brigitte Knight Choreography: Kit Reilly, Brydie Colquhoun, Olivia McGregor, Toa Paranihi Lighting Design: Elekis Teirney Set Design: Max de Roy, Roxie Black Costume Design: Anne de Geus In 2022 The New Zealand School of Dance is celebrating its... Keep Reading
Five dancers, three distinct choreographers, four visions, and a final work interwoven with contributions from five movement collaborators, all impacted by the potent force of COVID’s lockdown. The pandemic either prevented sufficient joint rehearsals on the one hand or permitted longer gestation of works pregnant with artistic possibilities... Keep Reading
What a thrilling show to watch! The Royal Family Dance Crew toured the South Island for the first time including a performance at the Town Hall in Dunedin on Wednesday 5th May. The theatre was packed with a wide age range of fans of Parris Goebel and her Royal Family Dance Crew, who watched the show with awe and screamed with excitement... Keep Reading
Accepting the challenge of a Fringe Festival performance, Otto Kosok conceived and choreographed a thought provoking work of immediate contradictions, baffling premise and dark menacing execution. Against a seemingly pointless existence, humans imbued with genius and courage manoeuvred to survive and triumph. Keep Reading
Choreographer/dancer Lucy Marinkovich and composer/saxophonist Lucien Johnson combined to produce Strasbourg 1518, a fusion of dance, music and story into theatre. Their take on that specific historic outbreak of dancing mania is given psychological and political context using tropes of religion, rationality, visual art and... Keep Reading
How do you fly down a sand dune? Carried by momentum with the ground falling away beneath your feet – perhaps? Flying Down Sand Dunes is the second iteration of a heart-felt dance work. A group of accomplished recent graduates first presented this show at the 2019 Fringe Festival. That rendition was, in a simple reading, an exploration of... Keep Reading
Atamira Dance Company brought their new intimate work TOMO to life at Q Theatre as part of the Tempo Dance Festival. The powerful work, choreographed by Gabrielle Thomas, highlights exactly why they are the leading producer of Māori Contemporary Dance. TOMO explores spirituality, telling the tale of three wāhine travelling through Te ... Keep Reading
About Others by Caitlin Davey Tempo Dance Festival Q Theatre, 2 October 2019 Kicking off Tempo Dance festival was Caitlin Davey’s work About Others. The interactive piece was brought to life during a two-show production at Q theatre this week. Looking at humanity, the dynamic piece left us questioning our own existence and demon... Keep Reading
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Chris Connolly reviews 'Soundscape' by Momentum Productions. With music my Andrew Cesan and choreography by Kayla Paige, "Momentum’s will to enforce an equal emphasis on dance and music is starting to result in the forging of a distinctly recognisable style" Keep Reading
CHOCOLATE - JAVA DANCE THEATRE 10 July 2019, Te Auaha, Wellington Reviewed by Brigitte Knight "We started at the beginning of time and now we have reached dessert”. Java Dance Theatre’sArtistic Director and Creative New Zealand Fellow, Sacha Copland, initiated the company’s five-part Artisan series in 2011 with RI... Keep Reading