Regression Test
Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
03/03/2009 - 04/03/2009
Production Details
THREE HUMANS AND TWO ROBOTS
Regression Test sees three humans and two robots simultaneously dance five improvised solos, a challenging and enigmatic performance that is never the same. This year in the Auckland Fringe, Release Candidate dance present their new work full length dance theatre work Regression Test which was recently performed at the Christchurch Body Festival to exuberant audiences.
Regression Test is about consciousness, about where the lines between a free thinking being and a machine blur. The dancers include giant crows and robotic monkeys as well as humans. The choreography tricks the mind into losing control over what the body does, searching for dance that is alive and unconscious.
Release Candidate dance was formed in late 2007 by Joshua Rutter and David Hall. The company aims to expand the breadth of performance on offer in New Zealand while questioning the assumptions made in traditional dance practice about the relationships between dancers, their bodies, and the environment. The company use improvisational and image based methods to create works that break free of standard choreographic structure and force the performers to be truly present for the audience.
Joshua has recently returned from Japan where he was engaged in a 2 month workshop with Min Tanaka, he is a freelance dancer and choreographer resident in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a graduate of the Unitec BPASA Dance Program, and the CircoArts (Circus) diploma at Christchurch Polytechnic. Since graduating he has danced for Michael Parmenter, Malia Johnston, Alyx Duncan, Alexa Wilson, and Julia Sadler. He has choreographed two works for Late Night Choreographers (2005 & 2007), and presented work independently. He is a core member of Vivid Performance Group, which has seen him perform throughout Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
David is an Auckland based writer, dancer and actor. He is a graduate of the University of Auckland creative writing course, and in 2007 attended a two month Body Weather dance intensive run by Min Tanaka in Hakushu, Japan. He has danced for Joshua Rutter, Alyx Duncan, Hugh Major, Wilhemeena Gordon, and Matt Gibbons. In 2007 and 2008 he choreographed and presented work independently. A live musical score will be performed by Auckland musician Tim Coster and Wellington Artist Dan Untitled will provide live audio visuals and robotics.
‘Performed with incredible control, emotional and physical…while the pace of the dances required great physical strength, control and effort they managed to portray a fragility of both body and mind. The magic of this performance is that there were as many ways to view the show as there were audience members… brave and rich.’ – Cheryl Robinson – The Press
The Basement (Lower Greys Ave, Auckland CBD)
Tuesday 3rd – Wednesday 4th March
10:00pm – 10:50pm
Tickets: $15/$10
Tickets available through Aotea Centre Box Office (09) 357 3355 or www.buytickets.co.nz
The Auckland Fringe runs from 27th February to 22nd March 2009.
For more Auckland Fringe information go to www.aucklandfringe.org.nz
Startling, complex images
Review by Alys Longley 04th Mar 2009
1.
A man wearing only a nappy stands in a pool of light, carrying an umbrella. There is a sense of radiance growing form inside his chest, growing in intensity. His arms lift. Gritty, abstract electronic music from musician Tim Coster surges. There is a sense that he locates the outer edges of a threshold and then allows the moment to fall away. As he walks offstage he raises the umbrella. I am reminded of the absurdists and the surrealists, art movements that influenced the development of Butoh, a dance form that underpins this new work by Dave Hall and Joshua Rutter.
2.
Another man, tracksuited, sits at the back of the audience, in partial view. Again, the sense of a concentrated awareness and a surge of ambient sound, as the movement finds its extremity and falls away.
3.
The first man again, this time in a wonderful orange dress. Again, the very fine and specific attention and a sense of morphing. He tucks the dress into the nappy.
4.
A surging forward and back between them, solo in duet form. Duet in solo form.
5.
Duet. A sense of crossing not a stage but an expanse. Josh carries an amplifier and has a microphone taped to his mouth so the sound of swallowing and breathing joins the sounds of feedback. They remind me of Pozzo and Lucky from Waiting For Godot, making their way through the strange logic of minutes.
6.
A duet with Rutter and amplifier, between a dancer and distances (or extreme proximities) of sound, a dance that literally pushes levels of noise into tense motion.
7.
The final image has stayed with me. Hall is walking in one direction. Rutter emerges behind him, his arms wrap to lift, his feet travel them both. Hall continues his slow walk the opposite way, his feed padding the air toward a destination he cannot reach. It is a tragic-comic image brimming with pathos and humour.
I am very glad to have seen regression test. This is a carefully considered experimental work through which startling, complex images continuously unfold with lighting and sound matched to support and extend the reach of the performance.
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