Footnote New Zealand Dance has developed a reputation for being experimental, presenting dance in non-traditional settings and producing the work of NZ dance artists living abroad. Transfer delivered to those aims. 

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Transfer by Footnote New Zealand Dance brings together the work of internationally recognised New Zealand choreographers Joshua Rutter (Berlin) and Jeremy Nelson (New York). Performed in the Tea Gardens at Massey University, this is a dance experience not to be missed. When arriving at this beautiful building you’re told to ‘go into the room with the purple lights’ – and from here the passion begins to unfold.

To open, Joshua Rutter presents his work Tomorrow After All, using fragments scavenged from the internet as his inspiration. Long thick black tubes line the back and sides of the performance space. They snake their way forwards intriguing the audience, eventually revealing faceless dancers with long fringes in soft pastels, and bodies convulsing to the stabbing beat of atmospheric music. The dancers express explicit control throughout. Muscle spasms drawing us closer – exploring the emotional turmoil unfolding before our very eyes. It’s weirdly tempting, teasing and seductive.

As the black cylinders roll forward they take over, twisting, immersing, and covering the five dancers like giant black clouds. Hovering until these dancers can’t be seen anymore. This is skilful choreography and a precise dance execution that appears effortless. Then silence. Through this silence, we gradually hear the rippling, rustling sounds of a plastic world moving like the wind. Then flowing like soft waves sweeping up the beach. It’s quite spooky but it is innovative and wonderful. And as we’ve already been told, it is Tomorrow After All.

Following, Jeremy Nelson presents Bridges and Doors. A dance work inspired by New Zealand architecture, and ideas relating to it – both inside and out. It is truly fitting this dance experience unfolds in a place so grand, urging us to consider our surroundings. 

In the programme, there is a photograph taken at the opening of the first New Zealand state house at 12 Fife Lane in Miramar, Wellington, 1937. The Prime Minister at the time, Michael Joseph Savage, is seen lifting a dining table through the crowd towards the house – this is a wonderful source of inspiration, and poses the question ‘When does a house become a dwelling?’

Bridges and Doors begin with dancers rolling across the floor in unison. Within seconds I feel present, in the house exploring every nook and cranny. Through the thoughtful, textured choreography we are privy to elements of architecture combining with human interactions, and an exploration of who we are and where we live. I feel I am travelling through a stranger’s house and their mind, privy to all their private thoughts. When the dining room table arrives and is placed strategically in the corner, a sense of permanence is established.

This contemporary piece highlights a controlled execution of movement displaying fine lines, complex coordination, and a subtle synchronicity. It appears these five dancers know this house very well. In fact, it seems like they live there – such is their performance.

Overall, Transfer presents an unforgettable night. Congratulations Footnote for bringing these two choreographers back to Aotearoa New Zealand. 

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In its 2016 season, Footnote New Zealand Dance draws upon the talents of overseas-based artists to present an intriguing double bill.

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Transfer is a show that in true Footnote, forward thinking fashion, unites what one may have thought impossible. For this show, that includes: a platform of two opposing hemispheres which choreographers Nelson and Rutter bridge as they bravely bring their expertise from abroad back home. It also includes two masterminds of varying extremes and two vastly different methods of execution. The result?.. Two very different dance works.

Just like the thousands of different virtual environments we find sneaking up in almost every aspect of culture today, Rutter’s work successfully recreates about 100 of these. Glimpses of ‘Sailor Moon’ hair styles, futuristic alien landings, or births, or both, are shot out from every angle in a slowly evolving series of pixelated computer generated movements which sometimes cross the line into the non-censored sites we may have become desensitised to. Hats and colourful wigs off to the dancers, who really make this work move. Literally, the two males begin generating graceful movement from inside a black inflatable tube of rubbish bag type consistency. These they appear to be born out of, making their debut with a series of strong, quirky solos. The spacy looking crew of girls move fiercely but with restraint, dangling the audience on their toes between wanting the strange scene to end, and wanting to see more of how these intriguing characters can move. Not one face is shown throughout, adding to the menacing alternate reality that Rutter, the dancers, the sound and visual effects create. All dancers embody these awkward characters boldly and move with great sincerity and control. ‘Tomorrow After All’ is a brave and interesting take on what can happen as this virtual world becomes a repetitive, menacing presence one may be exposed to, as Rutter puts it, ‘waaay too many times.’ 

Jeremy Nelson’s work ‘Bridges and Doors’ contrasts Rutter’s with its stunning sophisticated simplicity. It is a work with ideas and inspiration arising from architecture, and architecture’s final purpose as dwelling place. Nelson, who is known to work from the inside, out, subtly seems to instill his ideas more internally into the framework of the mind and body. This depth of practice can be seen in the clearly articulated, unique movements and presence of each dancer. Their individual bodies become the material to build with; their movements sculpted together become the architecture; and the sense of belonging each dancer exerts becomes the dwelling place. A suburban sound scape by Engelbrecht, of birds, and industrial noise helps to harmonise and place the work in its context. An intricate male duet has dancers Beck and Hemopo using feet and lower limbs to construct bridges which appear for a moment and quickly disseminate. Dellabarca and the two males create a moving sculpture in a beautiful trio with subtle pulsing peaks and falls, perhaps resembling the more internal workings of an external structure. Colquhoun moves with smoothly constructed athleticism, and Philipps, articulate poise. In this work Nelson manages to entrust each dancer with the sense of empowerment to use and articulate their own body, just as a homeowner would use their home as a dwelling place.   

Some dance works exert their ideas, and some works leave room to move. Both are enjoyed by different kinds of dance appreciators. In this case of these two hugely different works, I think there must be an extreme separation between the audience members who received and enjoyed one or the other respectively. On the bright side, there is something for everyone in Transfer! 

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Footnote New Zealand Dance presents Transfer, a double bill showcasing the choreographic work of Josh Rutter (NZ/Berlin) and Jeremy Nelson (NZ/New York). Footnote’s key objective for this biannual season is to bring home New Zealand choreographers living abroad to work with the company to develop new innovative contemporary dance. Transfer showcases the works of two unique choreographers, living in two dissimilar creative cities, working in two very different modes of performance. They complement each other well, and provide two ends of a performance spectrum for the ever faithful Footnote audience. The programme is also potentially a great entry into contemporary dance for newbies, featuring an insightful look at pop culture through Josh Rutter’s Tomorrow After All and a pure dance vocabulary in Jeremy Nelson’s Bridges and Doors.

Tomorrow After All is Josh Rutter’s first commission for Footnote New Zealand Dance. Many of us have seen his performance work Dance Like a Butterfly Dream Boy and it seems his time in Berlin has allowed him to delve more deeply into themes inherent in his recent work. Tomorrow After All has clearly been carefully researched, explored and crafted.

Contemporary dance of late praises the exploration of buzzwords ‘risk’ and ‘experimentation’. It might be easy to make assumptions about what these words might imply, however, what ‘risk’ means is dependent on the context; and in the case of dance: the particularities of the company philosophy, funding requirements, the dancers, and the audience demographic. For me, Tomorrow After All nails the notion of ‘experimentation’ within the Footnote context. It pushes us far enough away from the Now 2016 season to see Footnote in a new light and to position the company once again as working into the reaches of performance.

The world of Tomorrow After All is clear and intriguing, one in which anything and nothing is possible. Time travels in slow motion, and its as if we are watching the piece from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. The dancers are Sia-meets-Lady Gaga-meets-Bowie as a starting point, progressing forward in the space with computer-animated sounding voices inquiring as to what to do with ‘it’. Hideously beautiful boos (large black garbage bags taped together to create tubes up to 7 metres long) line the space, with movement potential itching to be revealed through any slight breeze that they encounter. The piece takes its time, always just enough for us to revel in the flick of hair over a shoulder, a slow reveal from inside a boo, and the formation of an alien family portrait.

The beauty of this work cleverly lies in the paradox of the slow deliberate choreographic animation of a boo moving in and out of specific shapes, juxtaposed against the ridiculous uncontrollability of certain tasks, for example, the dancers clambering blind and urgently to keep all boos up off the floor. The magic of these moments is exceptional, we laugh hysterically at the subtle comedic bewilderment of the dancers’ unknowingly phallic creations, and then admire the impossibility/possibilities of the accidental flimsy charm of other constructions.

The movement content of the work is both delicate and articulate and the dancers present an intriguing apathetic connection with each other and with the audience. Faces covered by long wigs, their movement is tentative and sensitive, carefully listening to the space. Each gesture is crafted to draw us into the textural personality of each performer.

In contrast, Jeremy Nelson’s work Bridges and Doors is conceptually more challenging to grasp, with the programme notes describing a loose exploration of dwellings, both architectural and personal. As his third work on Footnote, Bridges and Doors reveals a rigorous movement investigation that aligns itself with the dancing Footnote we know and love. Perceiving this work as a pure dance piece we observe poignant architectural details and clarity of compositional and structural elements. The choreography is such that our eyes know exactly where to look in space and at what time.

The movement vocabulary highlights the peculiarities of each dancer’s movement preferences: Emma Dellabarca with ever surprising and complex movement pathways and precisely designed investigations of movement dynamics and timings; Lana Phillips with her tightly coiled energy reversing away from the floor; Jeremy Beck with a delicacy and carefully measured momentum; Brydie Colquhoun with an enviable ease of strength; and Jared Hemopo a grounded presence, with integrated movement travelling into unusual positions.

Both works in the programme are supported by some exceptional lighting design and operation by Amber Molloy and Sam Mence. In particular, the unconventional timing for lighting states to evolve positively enhances the rhythmical structure and dynamic arc of both works.

In the fantastic June/July line-up of contemporary dance in Auckland you have two more chances to see Footnote in action at Q Theatre, Thursday 30 June and Friday 1 July, 8pm. Or nxt week in Wellington at  Massey University Tea Gardens, 6-7 July, 7.30pm. 

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