BOUND
TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs, Auckland
06/03/2013 - 08/03/2013
Production Details
I HATE YOU! I LOVE YOU! AND EVERYTHING INBETWEEN.
GraceDANCE Company presents
Bound
6th-8th March at TAPAC.
‘I love him. He loves her. They broke up. They’re back together. He said this. She did that. I want him. He wants them. We want different things. It’s too hard!’
Bound lays the human heart bare; the messy, confusing, mixed-up nature of human relationships. We are bound. And we are fallible. Our desire to be loved leads us to risk the very thing we want the most – another’s love.
Fast-paced and confronting, graceDANCE Company presents the premiere of Bound, a collection of original short dance works exploring love and human relationship.
We all have human interactions and relationships that are meaningful; what lies beyond those relationships? How can we define that thing we call love? Between friends, lovers, generations and across all barriers of race and culture, the bindings of love are universal.
Artistic Director Belinda Moore initially conceived Bound as a cathartic reaction to her own relationship break-up. But what began as a very personal journey, evolved into a broader look at love and humanity, as she observed that every relationship is bound in some way – be it heartache and loss, joy and hope, desire and longing.
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” Gilbert K. Chesterton
The dance works in Bound show diverse interpretations of love and the hurdles of relationship. Some interpretations are reactionary; others are sentiments or moods evolved into movement. The palette is unforced into a particular dance style or framework; rather the disparate nature of each work is a reflection of human relationships themselves – imperfect; ever-changing; indefinable.
Bound features a stellar line-up of New Zealand’s foremost lyrical choreographers and dancers including Maria Munkowits, Amanda McFarlane, Kayla-Paige, Matt Moore, Isbert Ramos and Belinda Moore.
Accompanied by a contemporary soundtrack, including artists Bon Iver, Rudimental, Mumford and Sons and Damien Rice, and live performance from singer/songwriter Emilie Forbes, Bound presents the universal experiences of love and human relationship in an utterly compelling way.
“To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best” – William M Thackeray.
BOUND plays 6th -8th March, 7pm
Duration: 60mins Venue: TAPAC, 100 Motions Road, Western Springs Tickets: $12-$20 Bookings: TAPAC- 09 845 0295 ext 2 or https://www.patronbase.com/_TAPAC/Productions
For more information contact: Belinda Moore 021 127 8074
bel@orcon.net.nz
http://www.facebook.com/bounddanceshow
Cast:
Emilie Forbes (singer/songwriter)
Belinda Moore is a multi-disciplinary performer and choreographer, who has worked extensively as a dancer and performer since she graduated from Auckland City Ballet Centre in 1998. She has performed in the shows Birds of Paradise, Cuban Carousel, Queen of the Whole Universe, Starlight Symphony, This Is It, The Blingstones, Carmen, La Traviata, The Crown Follies (Melbourne) and with John Rowles in If I Only Had Time. She currently has a permanent contract performing at Encore Cabaret.
Belinda has choreographed for a number of corporate events and clients including Sky City, Bayleys, Telecom and Russell McVeigh and for dance companies graceDANCE Company, The Cuban Groove, the Otago Dance Squad and the Apollo Theatre Company. She is directing and producing the show Bound which will premiere at the 2013 Auckland Fringe Festival.
Belinda has worked as a cheerleader for the All Blacks, the Blues, the Breakers, and the Warriors and spent a year dancing in Melbourne, performing at the Crown casino. She was a featured dancer in television series Legend of the Seeker, Maddigans Quest and This Is Not My Life and in the feature film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Belinda has trained extensively in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, salsa, afro-cuban, yoga and aerial circus. As a teenager, Belinda competed in rhythmic gymnastics for 11 years, representing New Zealand throughout Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. She competed in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada and at the 1995 World Championships in Austria and was twice New Zealand national champion. In addition to dancing and choreographing, Belinda teaches yoga.
Amanda Macfarlane is a 2009 graduate of the Unitec Performing and Screen Arts Degree where she majored in Contemporary Dance. She has performed in WOW (2010), Spartacus (2011), Tempo (2012), NZ Fashion Week (2012) and most recently for Kim Dotcom (2013).
Amanda has an extensive background in jazz and tap and is in high demand as a commercial dancer, working for Soul of Siren, The Orange Group, The Human Agency and La Belle Follies, for clients including SKYCITY, Westfield, XBOX, Bayleys, The Rock, Les Mills, BMW, Rebel Sport and GABA.
For the past two years Amanda has performed as a SKYCITY Cheerleader for the Breakers, the Warriors and the Blues and at several All Blacks matches.
Amanda is also a member of MaryJane O'Reilly's neo burlesque company 'In Flagrante', which has been touring their show of the same name throughout New Zealand in 2011 and 2012.
Maria Munkowits graduated from Unitec Performing and Screen Arts with a Contemporary Dance major in 2006. She went on to perform in short works for Late Night Choreographers and Tempo 2007. After a 3 year stint in Australia, Maria returned to NZ in 2011, joining the cast of Mary-Jane O’Reilly's neo-burlesque company, In Flagrante. Maria has performed with In Flagrante in Wellington (2011), New Plymouth Cabaret Festival (2012), Tempo (2012) and toured the South Island (2012). In 2012 she also performed in GoGoDo, the winning performance in the Short and Sweet Dance Festival, La Belle Follies cabaret, Birds of Paradise at NZ Fashion Week, in Boxed as part of the Living Room public art event and participated in an invitation-only development workshop for Okareka Dance Company.
Isbert Ramos (Vivio) started his dance career at age 11 at the prestigious and highly competitive National School of Arts (Escuela Nacional de Artes) in Havana, Cuba. There he studied many forms of performing arts including ballet, jazz, composition, choreography, national and international folklore (salsa, mambo, son, cha cha, rumba, conga, mozambique, pilon, yoruba and congo), contemporary and modern techniques, gymnastics, acting, music and painting.
He graduated after seven years with honours and the coveted Top Student of the Year award with National 1st prizes in both modern and contemporary dance. In the following three years he danced for Ballet de Camaguey and then joined The National Company of Contemporary Dance Cuba, where he performed for the next 19 years; 14 of those as First Dancer. Isbert then toured the world as a Principal Dancer and Choreographer in the highly successful international dance musical Lady Salsa.
In 2002, Isbert moved to New Zealand to pursue a freelance career and established salsa and afro-cuban dance classes and a performance company under the name The Cuban Groove. In 2009, alongside Greydis Montero Liranza, Isbert choreographed and directed the show The Cuban Carousel which toured New Zealand. The Cuban Carousel recounted the historical journey of Cuba, conveyed through music and dance and incorporating a blend of contemporary, afro-cuban and latin dance styles.
In addition to dancing, Isbert has performed in film, theatre, television commercials and on radio. His credits in New Zealand include Whale Rider (Stage 2004), Womad (2005), New Zealand Ceroc Championships (2005), Judge, Jambalaya (2006), Judge, New Zealand Salsa Championships (2003, 2005, 2006), New Zealand Pacific Salsa Congress (2007-2011), New Zealand Cuban Festival (2010 -2012), Birds of Paradise (2009-2012).
Matt Moore
Kayla Paige
Choreographers: Belinda Moore with Maria Munkowits, Kayla Paige, Isbert Ramos
Crew - Technical support (lighting and sound) – Tapac
1 hr
Bound - a lyrical journey
Review by Jacqui Cesan 12th Mar 2013
“Bound”, a suite of six dances by Grace Dance Company aas presented over three nights at TAPAC as part of the Auckland Fringe Festival. The theme of the programme was Love Gone Bad” and according to artistic director and principal choreographer Belinda Moore the works were inspired by her own experience of a messy breakup.
Each of the dances explored the complex emotions that surface during each stage of a breakdown in a relationship
With the exception of recent Unitec graduate Matt Moore, all the dancers work full time as commercial dancers and some have also danced with Morag Brownlie’s Birds Of Paradise extravaganza and Mary Jane O’Reilly’s “In Flagrante “
The opening item “Quartet “choreographed by Moore and danced by Moore, Kayla Paige, Maria Munkowits and Amanda Mcfarlane referred to the feeling of entrapment that is felt as the realisation dawns that we are tied to something that is not working. The use of a rope was a suitable but challenging motif for this piece and there were some interesting moments as the technically competent dancers twisted, rolled, and leapt to break free from rope coils. As with all the other dances, there was emotion that drove the movement, and so while the dance used aspects of contemporary technique, particularly in the floor work, the overriding style of this and subsequent pieces was lyrical, structured by the mood and words of the song.
Quartet was followed by very capable singer /pianist Emilie Forbes performing a song by Brooke Fraser “Scarlett’ A beautiful song well sung.
“Duet Before” was accompanied by programme note, ”What was left in the twilight of disintegration“ Performed to “I can’t Make you love me “ a Bonnie Raitt song, this duet featured Belinda Moore and Cuban dancer Isbert Ramos. Again the dancers were technically proficient and both dancers gave an emotive performance. This duet featured some complicated partner work as the dancers transferred the tortured emotion of the lyrics into movement.
“Solo Before “performed by Maria Munkowits and choreographed by Munkowits and Moore, was the most cohesive work in the programme. Set to a beautiful piece of music ,“Tio Sabas” by Paco De Lucia,. Munkowits gave a touching performance with clear technique and lovely floor work and her movement vocabulary and quality of movement fulfilled the promise of femininity as per the programme notes.
The next item “Solo after “ is accompanied by the programme note “Reconcile Your Past …for there your heart still beats” and was danceda little stiffly by Ramos in true Latin style with a lot of facial emotion. Ramos definitely has a presence and I love the way he moves his upper body, however I felt there was so much else he could have explored in his movement, and I was left wanting.
This was followed by a trio, which referred to being fools in love. Danced by Mcfarlane, Munkowits and Matt Moore, I was ready to see a little of the lighter side of love, and this item had promise and some interesting moments.
This solo was followed by another song from Emilie Forbes – ‘Why” was also composed by Forbes and she gave a compelling performance. Definitely a singer/songwriter to watch
The final duet “Song after – Why” was performed to A Damien Rice song “I remember” and dealt with the aftermath of a relationship. This was danced by Matt Moore and Kayla Paige, who are both very strong dancers with assured technique There were moments I really enjoyed in this choreography and the dancers definitely had a connection to the theme and to each other, however there were times when the emotion in the faces and gestures told stories that the dancing bodies could have made more interesting, particularly with two such capable dancers.
The dances in the programme all reflect reflecting the mood and the lyrics of the song that accompanies them. While this lyrical style is often beautiful to watch, and the dancers were themselves very watchable, much of the theme was already conveyed by the music and lyrics, rather than being embodied in the movement. The dancers did a wonderful job of bringing the emotion in to their performance, however it would have been great to see more of the movement choices telling the stories.
Dance is a wonderful medium for expressing the feelings that we hold inside when a relationship goes bad, and I imagine that making these works was cathartic for Moore. She is a passionate and dedicated dancer and must be commended for the time and effort getting this programme together. I hope that she will continue to explore new horizons for herself and her company.
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