Shift of Tides
Graphic, 105 Cuba Street, Wellington
14/02/2026 - 15/02/2026
Production Details
Karolina Gorton - Director, deviser, performer
Pipi-Ayesha Evans - deviser, performer
Karolina Gorton
https://www.karolinagorton.com/
Following a debut season at Viewfinder Gallery in Whakatū/Nelson, Shift of Tides will be performed in Wellington, at Graphic, 105 Cuba Street, in the 2026 New Zealand Fringe Festival on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 February at 9.30 pm.
Merging physical theatre, ritual, and poetic imagery, and performed in a shop window, Shift of Tides explores the cycles of loss, renewal, and transformation that shape the human experience. It invites audiences to reflect on the spaces between beginnings and endings — between the past we carry and the futures we imagine.
“It’s a meditation on change and connection,” says director and performer Karolina. “We wanted to create something that feels both intimate and universal — like standing at the edge of the tide, where everything is shifting.”
“We walk between the shift of tides—where joy meets sorrow, where we lose ourselves only to be found again, where existence brushes the edge of the void.”
Venue: Graphic Comics, 105 Cuba St, Wellington
Time: 9.30 pm
Length: 50 mins
Cost: Koha
https://tickets.fringe.co.nz/event/446:8382/
https://www.karolinagorton.com/projects#/shift-of-tides/
Cast: Karolina Gorton, Pipi-Ayesha Evans
Designer: Karolina Gorton
Crew: Ant Church (stage manager, technician)
Dance , Dance-theatre , Performance Art , Physical Theatre , Site-specific/site-sympathetic ,
50 minutes
Mesmerising, reflective and haunting performance in the midst of the busy nightlife.
Review by Deirdre Tarrant 15th Feb 2026
The Graphic Comic Studio is stripped of colour and transformed for us into two empty shop windows with hanging white material. The audience is curious, and passersby stop to look. Curiosity is a powerful trait of humanity, and we wait. Wondering.
A brief introduction, then two dancers, Pipi-Ayesha Evans and Karolina Gorton, step into the windows and softly form a window with their arms. There is a wonderful calm within the windows as we begin to observe their interpretation of life and beginnings, while outside in the street, there is the noise and partying of Friday night in the city. Mesmerising with each dancer on their own trajectory to reflect/ explore the serious subject of existence, their movement develops almost in parallel. Some movements fulfil a purpose, but are then lost as time passes. Their eyes are blue – is this so that they don’t see? Can’t see? Choose not to involve themselves? Interpretation is in the eyes of the beholder, as is ultimately all art and all experience. Their vocabulary is carefully crafted and simple. They are aware of each other throughout and come out on the street to be more together. Some contact and weight-taking movements are tested. They are trusting of us and of each other, and they move out individually into the audience to connect more directly.
Each movement is well considered. I am reminded of fate and those questions, never far from consideration, as we grow and are concerned by our own responsibility and choices.
Our lives are in our hands.
The dancers explore their predestined pathways and return to their whiteness and to the earth that nurtures all. There is something of a timeless Greek frieze or a long-ago shadow world set in mythology and destined to haunt us.
But the lights go out, and we are still standing in Wellington on a gorgeous evening amongst people who watch and people who walk by. This is a quintessential fringe show – personal and a surprise. Art holds a window up to reflect who we are, and for an hour, we are all part of a wider humanity.
Try to be in Cuba Mall at 9.30 when the Shift of Tides happens to you.
This is one of those experiences people will talk about.
Thank you to both Karolina and Pipi for making this work and for coming to Wellington to share your personal Shift of Tides.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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