The first part of Whenua closes with the voice of celebrated choreographer Rodney Bell (Ngāti Maniapoto), his words projected in red across a slanting white screen — “Ko au ko koe, ko koe ko au”: I am you, and you are me. Connections to one another and to the land are central themes of this striking double-bill from the New […]
[Let Me Wrap My Teeth Around the World] How does one communicate the starving artist through dance alone? W Dance Company takes on this challenging feat in Idle, an original contemporary dance production exploring the effects of artistic starvation. It’s no easy accomplishment, contemporary dance is endlessly interpretive therein lies the challenge to tell a cohesive narrative — but Idle […]
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this review contains the name of someone who has passed away. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers of the work are also warned that SandSong contains images and voices of deceased persons. A shimmering, molten backdrop – gold and red like the surface of the sun or a crucible of red […]
An Inspector Calls? A farce about the paranoia of totalitarianism, Revisor is a darkly comic choreographic blend of bodies, setting, light and sound. Created by Canadians Jonathon Young (writer) and Crystal Pite (choreography and direction), Revisor follows the titular character (performed by Gregory Lau, and voiced by Young), a minor civil servant tasked with updating a piece of legislation by […]
[Raspberry sauce with a side of body horror] Jessie McCall’s latest choreographic offering I Get So Emotional Baby demonstrates the inexhaustible vocabulary of the human form. Palpable female emotion collides with references to the male gaze in an engrossing and stimulating work. The movement focused I Get So Emotional Baby offers a tightly woven series of images and motifs pertaining […]
[A fairy-tale for our challenging times] The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s ‘dream team’ of choreographer Loughlan Prior and composer Claire Cowan return with their largest and most ambitious project to date. Perfectly timed to coincide with the reopening of Wellington’s St James Theatre, it is clear that with a protagonist who rescues herself, two princes, an animated tapestry, and an […]
[Old Forms; New Visions] The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s double bill of The Firebird with Paquita presents two traditional, narrative classical ballets in boldly contrasting ways. Opening the programme, Paquita remains faithful to the Imperial Ballet style in approach and realisation. First staged in Russia in 1847, the work is retained in the repertoire of ballet companies worldwide, including Aotearoa, […]
[Escapist Magnificence] Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg’s production of Giselle premiered in 2012, and has become a signature work for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, supported by the beautiful 2013 feature film Giselle directed by New Zealander Toa Fraser. The production is richly realised, refined with impeccable taste, and embodies the centuries-old magic of classical ballet in absolute escapist magnificence. […]
[This Beautiful Thing] Kicking off in Auckland and touring New Zealand for the third time since its inception in 2016, Meremere is an autobiographical multimedia dance work showcasing the inspirational life journey of Rodney Bell. Directed by Malia Johnston and created and performed as a solo by Bell himself, the audience follow his journey from leaving Aotearoa after the death […]
[Mystery and Frenzy] Partners in life and in work, creatives Lucy Marinkovich and Lucien Johnson as Borderline Arts Ensemble present Strasbourg 1518, their largest major full-length work to date. A tumultuous example of life-imitating-art or vice versa, Strasbourg 1518 is a production that opened in Wellington in March 2020 as Covid-19 infiltrated our shores, closing early due to a pandemic-related […]
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