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New Dance Group ChoreCo / Footnote New Zealand Dance New Zealand Fringe Festival 10 March 2020 Circa Theatre Reviewed by Mona Williams Under the auspices of Footnote New Zealand Dance five selected freelance dancers, worked for three weeks with two talented choreographers, Josie Archer and Kosta Bogoievski to mount a spirited, richly... 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
We make dances because we have bodies. We make dances to deal with our matter, to experience a particular feeling of body-joy, to enter into the idea of a knowledge that is immutable, and real, because it doesn’t know what any of those words mean. Insofar as the dancing-body exists, so too does the techno-body: the locus of seduction and... Keep Reading
Tutus on Tour Royal New Zealand Ballet Oamaru, Friday 13 March 2020 Reviewed by Sofia Keep Reading
French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s reading of Snow White, first created in 2008 for his company of twenty-six dancers, is a morality tale of vanity and obsession, which still resonates nearly twelve years later, mirroring as it does the narcissism of the present-day Trumpian era. Keep Reading
Hōkioi me te Vwōhali From spirit eagles land Ōkareka Dance Company and Exhale Dance Tribe in the NZ Festival of the Arts 2020 Reviewed by Arihia Latham As sound engulfed the audience and light flashed like the morning sun revealing itself behind rocks and trees, I felt my heart ruffling its feathers in my sternum. I was... Keep Reading
In Search of Dinozord by Studios Kabako Sat 29 Feb 2020 Reviewed by Sascha Perfect I feel ill equipped to write a review of a show when I know nothing about the history or culture of the artists involved. But I can thank the New Zealand Festival of the Arts for bringing a work that normally wouldn’t be seen on our shores. Presented at... Keep Reading
القُدس JERUSALEM MAU Concept / Direction / Design / Sound: Lemi Ponifasio Lighting: Helen Todd Choreography: Lemi Ponifasio and MAU Company The Opera House Wellington Saturday 22nd February How do we apologise to roses our feet trampled roses lying around the city’s eyelashes? Blocked roads books oozing... 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
Billed as “a thrilling collection of performances by young dancers on the brink of their professional careers”, the opening night of the Graduation Season 2019 did not disappoint. In the two-hour programme (plus two intervals) eight meaty works were presented, which each tested the young dancers’ performance and technical abilities and... Keep Reading
Infusing fresh vision, vibrancy and enjoyment into a well-known, gruesome folk tale, choreographer Loughlan Prior countered with a dizzying style palette; the 1920’s Charleston, a smooth waltz and flapper era vaudeville; he spiced it with can-can, chorus line routine, early Broadway sassy Jazz interpretations, and a sly, knowing touch of... Keep Reading
The ancient, high Art of the Bharatanatyam Dance tradition was richly expressed in a two-hour, evening interpretation of complex rhythmic and percussive sounds, expressive facial, body and hand movements; performance to music of voice, flute, sitar, ankle bells and tabla, and danced narratives of virtue, sacrifice, treachery, loyalty, magic,... Keep Reading
Fa'asinomaga | Identity Tempo Arts festival 8 October, Q Theatre, Auckland Reviewed by Tia Reihana-Morunga Tonight my family and friends went to see the Sau e Siva Creatives and their work Fa’asinomaga – Identity. I don’t take lightly the feeling I have when I see formal dance spaces often facilitated by Western values of the... 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
The Gloaming Curated by Tru Paraha and Hosted by Tempo Dance Festival Old Folks Association Hall, 4 October 2019 Reviewed by Tia Reihana From the side street of an Auckland cityscape where the arts fringe of in-cohesiveness blossoms, The glØaming, curated by Tru Paraha and hosted by Tempo Dance Festival fed portraits of blood and beetro... Keep Reading
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