Mixed Nuts
24/01/2011 - 26/02/2011
Production Details
Come Play with some crazy coconuts who are really a mixed bunch of nuts!
Mixed Nuts is LIMA Dance Productions wacky coconut take on FRINGE. Featuring live interactive performances, wander into the Mangere Arts Centre and see how we like to play.
Be serenaded as you enter by our very own interactive exhibition, the Dusky Maidens. Interactive Monkeys, who love to get into mischief with people so watch yourself! These Monkey’s love to surprise, so who knows what might happen!
In the Green room you will be asked to ‘pardon’ the three Tongan prisoners, ‘Sai e’, as they perform their comedy skits; think of it as Tonga meets ‘Chicago’. In the Theatre the Techno MAD scientist is hard at work trying to get his dancing mannequins to work, who are formerly known as VOGUE, NZ’s HIP-HOP Champions 2010.
After an hour of interactive play we have the LIMA Dance Theatre company who will perform their fresh off the block Dance/Physical Theatre piece ‘Take That’, which has been largely inspired by the International Dance Theatre company DV8. It’ll keep audience members on their toes as they tell the fresh and funky story of four young Samoan students in their last year of school through Hip-Hop, Contemporary dance, Singing and great Physical Theatre.
So look out for the odd, the weird but most of all a great new innovative look for Pacific Theatre, which is definitely young and freshly Pacific!
Lima Dance Productions presents
PACIFIC FRINGE- MIXED NUTS:
February 24th-25th; 11am, 1:30pm & 7pm
February 26th; 12pm
Mangere Arts Centre, Bader Drive & Orly Ave, Mangere
Tickets: $10 Adults; $5 students/unwaged and groups of 6 or more adults.
Show duration: 60 mins
For all other enquires please call: Mangere Arts Centre on: (09) 262 5789
The Dusky Maidens: Nastassia Wolfgramm, Yvonne Taufa, and Joanna Mika-Toloa
Monkeys: Isaac Mataia, Terara Tune and Adolf Hoeft
Contemporary dancers: Tevita Vaka and Tanya Ioane, Te Kaye White and Albert Mateni
Vogue-ers: Amanaki Prescott, Mario Faumui, Raukawa Tuhura, Carl Flavell and Nico Porima.
Sai e: Siulolo Fonua, Loma Teisi, Una Funaki
Take That! cast : Suivai Autagavia - Val, Cherish Gibson - Cousin T, Troy Tu'ua - Mac, Otto Mateo - Flipa
Adolf Hoeft - Ox' Casey (music tech)
80 mins
Mixed Nuts - a local showcase
Review by Raewyn Whyte 25th Feb 2011
The Mixed Nuts variety showcase at Mangere Arts Centre is great fun and an impressive introduction to local talent as well as to the multiple spaces of the beautiful new building which opened four months ago. The twenty-six (mostly emerging) artists able who comprise Lima Dance Productions are dancers, actors, comedians and singers, and they are confident performers, well able to hold the audience in the palm of their hands. Under the overall direction of director/producer Olivia Taouma-Levy, and with some support from Pacific Institute of Performing Arts, they aspire to a future in performance.
The showcase begins with a small wait for one of four circulating tour guides. Then you enter the foyer with the gorgeous harmonies of the white-shrouded and painted Dusky Maidens (Nastassia Wolfgramm, Yvonne Taufa, and Joanna Mika-Toloa) ringing round the rafters and bouncing off the glass surfaces which enclose them in all directions. Next it’s out into a paved courtyard littered with broken packing crates to observe three capering Monkeys (Isaac Mataia, Terara Tune and Adolf Hoeft) who combine carefully observed animal movement sequences with street dance and a canny eye on the possibility of interacting with the onlookers.
The theatre foyer is next stop for two nicely polished contemporary dance duets in naturalistic, flowing style on the theme of “love”, danced to live guitar. Bliss (Tevita Vaka and Tanya Ioane) is all sweetness and soaring romance; Missing You (Te Kaye White and Albert Mateni) is more sombre and gritty but with sweet moments nevertheless. Inside the theatre, there’s a 12 minute or so performance, a terrific reworking of voguing, without the fashion garments but with extra ‘tude to make up for it, from a tight crew comprising Amanaki Prescott, Mario Faumui, Raukawa Tuhura, Carl Flavell and Nico Porima. Then out the back to a rehearsal studio for Sai e – an edgy encounter with three inmates who wryly make light of their incarceration, evoking plenty of laughs even when a point hits home with the audience.
Finally, back into the theatre for the main event, a 40-minute physical theatre work, Take That! which examines the issues facing four young adults at this moment in their lives. One is being sent to Samoa to help out her extended family still recovering from the big storms of a year ago; her best friend is making a big drama out of it to cover up her feelings; her closest male friend has been selected for the under 20s rugby team and is miffed she won’t see him play; and his best mate is at a loose end or two or three, and they’re hanging out together at her home, alone. The young actors (Suivai Autagavaia, Cherish Gibson, Troy Tu’ua, and Otto Mateo ) have great command of movement and vocal delivery, both spoken and sung), a comedic sense of timing and a wonderful rapport as an ensemble, and they are utterly convincing.
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