Tertiary Colours (2011)

05/10/2011 - 06/10/2011

Production Details

Tempo would like to thank Katrina Todd, Mrs Byllee McDonald and the McDonald Family Trust, Louise Pether, Royal New Zealand Ballet, University of Auckland, New Zealand School of Dance, Unitec, Auckland University of Technology, East Auckland Performing Arts, Elisabeth Vaneveld, Lee and Penny Stevens, Te Waka Huia Trust, The New Zealand Dance Company, Helen Langford and the New Zealand Dance Festival Trust Board – Marama Lloydd, Suzanne Smith, Jane Haines and Geordan Wilcox.

Boundaries – University of Auckland

Choreographed by Pei-Jung Lee

Performed by Efim Bychkunov, Kate Cummings, Jessica Foley-Taylor, Breanna Gentry, Kathleen Harper, Michel-Le' Jacks, Seidah Karati, Jason Kim, Claire Murphy, Emma Payne and Conor Young

Music - ‘Where Does Lost Data Goes’ composed by Patricia Dallio, ‘Violin Phase’ composed by Steve Reich

Prima Materia (First Matter): Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Ether – University of Auckland

Choreographed by Jack Gray and The Elves

Performed by University of Auckland 2^nd Year Dance students

Music by Robyn and Te Auripo Kamira

Choreographic Assistance: Bianca Hyslop

Costumes by Sophie Williams, Angelique Dale and Maika Grant

Tutors: Kura Te Ua, Terri Crawford, Louise Potiki Bryant, Cathy Livermore, Amy Reeves, Cindy Aikman and Megan Smith

Aristotle’s idea of the primal material refers to the idea that there is a primordial matter that lies behind all forms, but that is itself invisible. It is the womb of creation, the field of pure potentiality. In the alchemical process, the prima materia is that which remains when something has been reduced to its essence and can be reduced no further.

Many thanks to PJ Lee and Ralph Buck.

What About Me? - Unitec

Choreographed and performed by Alisha Anderson and Jared Hemopo

Music - ‘Hovercraft’ by Sora Shima and ‘Mind Dependancy’ by Blindspott

This piece was created around the theme of psychological abuse, inspired by our own experiences with degradation, manipulation and loss of communication.

Newton’s Cradle of Flesh and Bone – New Zealand School of Dance

Choreographed by Levi Cameron and Yan Hao Du

Performed by Yan Hao Du, Levi Cameron, Alice Macann, Zoe Dunwoodie, Rebecca Bassett-Graham, Jonathan Selvaduai, Carl Tolentino

Music – ‘Tsk Tsk’ and ‘Test Tool’ by Nick Wales and Bree van Reyk

Machine powered mannequins bounce off one another. Potential builds before it explodes in a precise and linear fashion.

Shepherd (excerpt) - New Zealand School of Dance

Choreographed by Thomas Bradley

Performed by Thomas Bradley, Levi Cameron, Alice Macann, Zoe Dunwoodie, Rebecca Bassett-Graham, Carl Tolentino

Music – ‘New World in my View’ by King Britt and ‘Celestial Police’ by Worrytrain

Follow the leader-en route to cloud nine. Careful how you tread. His vengeance is devine.

Undergo - New Zealand School of Dance

Choreographed by Victoria Colombus

Performed by Zoe Dunwoodie and Thomas Bradley

Music – ‘Electric Delady’ by Amanda Brown

Thank you to two inspiring dancers.

Unknot the Twine - New Zealand School of Dance

Choreographed and performed by Joathan Saladuai

Music – ‘Feljott a Nap/Romanian Dance #4’ by Csokolom

Knot (noun) =a complex tangled mass. Can you unite it?

Trance – AUT

Choreographed by Philippa Pidgeon

Performed by Zoe Hood-Hogan, Eseta Penaia, Te Mana Allen, Maahy Badeeu, Bella Ashby, Poanui Lee

Music – ‘One Summary’ by Pedro Carneiro and John Psathas

Music recorded by Simon Rattle

Rehearsal Assistant - Kiara Sian-Cooley

Philippa Pidgeon (MFA, ARAD - Lecturer & Acting BDance Programme Leader) - this is her third time entering a work in the festival. She was recipient of Best Choreographer Award for a Youth Company in Tempo 2007. Recently she facilitated the collaboration with the NZ Chinese Association and AUT Dance Company to co-choreograph “Land of Dreams” which won the 2011 Viva Ecletika Challenge resulting in a guest spot at the Aroha Mardi Gras Festival as part of the REAL NZ Festival. She is currently enjoying being part of the creative team for Renee Liang’s The Bone Feeder, showing at TAPAC in Nov. Philippa would like to thank her dancers and the BDance staff at AUT.

To What End? – AUT

Choreographed by Xinia Alderson

Performed by Aya Nakamura, Erin Bowerman, Jane Carter, Sarah Yu, Sean Papuni, Xinia Alderson

Music – ‘Air War’ by Cristal Castles, ‘’Love’ by Smashing Pumpkins, ‘Redford (For Yia Yia and Pappou)’ by Sufjan Stevens, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by Joy Division

‘Zine’ is most commonly known as a small circulation of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier. This is not a love zine (except that it is) by Stacey Teague has been the starting point of To what end?. Sometimes you come to realise that it is only the small things in which happiness is found, cherished, and the place where larger things grow.

Xinia graduated in December 2010 with a Bachelors degree in Dance from AUT. During her time studying she has performed as a dancer in TEMPO dance festival in both 2009 and 2010. She has been involved in many other small dance projects and discovered an interest in Yoga, Pilates, Somatics, and contemporary dance. In 2010 she worked with Black Grace Dance Company and continued to work with them in 2011 for the Auckland Festival and Pacifica. From 2009 onwards she has been a dancer and choreographer for the AUT Dance Company. In early 2011 Xinia founded her own contemporary dance company Trip Stumble Fall Productions, WATCH THIS SPACE

CONTINUED...

No Turning Back - East Auckland Performing Arts

Choreographed by Geordan Wilcox

Performed by Mio Shimazu

Music – ‘As Day Follows Night’ composed by Sarah Blasko

Dance Russe – East Auckland Performing Arts

Excerpt from Swan Lake, Act II

Staged by Oranna Blanke

Performed by Georgina Baxendine, Aurelian Child-de-Brocas, Darnielle Eketone, Casey Head, Danielle Lightfoot, Sun Lou, Laura McDonald, Lillie Scott-Smith, Mio Shimazu, Melanie Van Voornveld

Music – Tchaikovsky

Q Production Team

Production Manager – Mitchell Turei

Lighting Designer/Operators – Rochelle Houghton and Josh Bond

Stage Manager – Ruby Reihana-Wilson

Q Front of House – Kristin Burns

1hour

Review by Dr Linda Ashley 06th Oct 2011

In these annual collections of New Zealand tertiary dance work, I am reminded of the work of postmodern dancers such as Mary Fulkerson whose intention in their teaching was to create a supportive environment and emphasise development more than achievement. However, I think that the phenomenon that faces us is a spectrum of what is being developed in the danceworks which are presented in Tertiary Colours. The eleven dances on show this year beg the question: “How to respond to choreographies that emanate from different teaching/learning models?” Another tricky issue for reviewers and audience is appreciation of student work juxtaposed with that of lecturing staff and other professionals. All in all this mix calls for a considerable amount of discerning political and aesthetic thinking. What kind of teaching/learning intentions may we see working in Tertiary Colours?

From New Zealand School of Dance, four highly athletic, abstract pieces present a cohesive and recognisable palette of gestural movement. This is a group of honed, technically precise dancers who own the stage, successfully representing their conservatoire model. The three student choreographies have rich musicality, and carry a somewhat similar form and feel about them, emphasising the technicalities of contemporary dance. Shepherd, choreographed by Thomas Bradley, had a particularly gripping ferocity and irregularity. Levi Cameron and Yan Hao Du’s Newton’s Cradle of Flesh and Bone continues with some characteristic gestural isolations and touching of the body, in what seems like endless variations in these pieces, strong solo work and a rippling of limbs placed on top of steps that devour the space. Interestingly, the choreographers are dancing in their own works.

Adjacent on the tertiary dance ‘intention-spectrum’ East Auckland Performing Arts present quite different genres. Geordan Wilcox’s modern jazz solo, danced by Mio Shimazu, and the ensemble ballet Dance Russe (staged by Oranna Blanke) both project what many will recognise as conventional theatre dance. With the traditional outward projection of the dancers and music visualisation both of these dances present us with an easily accessible concept of dance. Following the music, even word for word at times, Wilcox creates a suitable performance frame for Shimazu. In the idealised romantic, rural idyll of a Russian character ballet the kitsch feel injects lightheartedness into the evening. Performance and technical levels are what these dancers are setting their sights on, and although the accomplishments ranging from some exciting male dance to some charming moments are a little uneven in places, the spirit of dance is unmistakeable.

Surprisingly this year, UNITEC only contributed one piece and, similar to the previous pieces, the dancers presented articulate technicalities. Dancers Alisha Anderson and Jared Hemopo perform in their own emotionally intense choreography, What About Me? Anderson delivers a rendition of steadfastness in the face of what was, for my taste, a little overly overt violent male manipulation. Hemopo is stolid in the prolonged stillnesses and rather overshadowed by Anderson’s rich phrasing, although pent up anger bursts through in Hemopo’s furious solo, briefly. Contact is suitably used, as the dominator can only feel comfortable if he is in control, and he seems incapable of listening, being alone or accepting guidance when offered. A sentient representation of psychological abuse inspired by their own experiences, there are passages where this is palpable, and this is a work worthy of further mentoring in order to enhance the sense of menace and hopelessness.

AUT University graduate Xinia Alderson, working under the auspices and mentoring of AUT Dance Company, an initiative of the Bachelor of Dance programme from 2008, features dancers and fellow graduates Erin Bowerman, Jane Carter, Aya Nakamura, Sean Papuni and Sarah Yu in To What End? The work has an eclectic feel, including slow motion krumping from which exudes the bound ferocity of unrequited love, contrasting with an amusing, but suitably tender, love duet with Carter and Papuni. Filled with innovative use of facial expressions, varied genres, and dancers who feel connections with each other, this collage of cult images and social references is a piece that takes creative risks. Sincerely and mindfully performed, it achieves a fresh, youthful and different contemporary range of movement reflecting the AUT’s Bachelor of Dance mantra “dancing with difference”. AUT’s other piece of the evening is balletically based contemporary dance, Trance. Choreographed by lecturer Philippa Pidgeon, it presents year two dance students and, characteristically, makes full use of the stage space in a plethora of floor patterns, weaving a web of entrancement around the dancers. The dancers capture fleeting feelings of being entrapped within the repetitious phrasing; a piece well worth further development in order that the nuances may be better highlighted and technical range enhanced.

The University of Auckland squeeze two large group ensembles into the relatively small Loft stage at Q theatre. Prima Materia (First Matter): Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Ether by guest choreographer Jack Gray and seven “Elves” bears the marks of a luxuriant number of expert eyes tutoring second year dance studies students. Gray et al. create a primeval landscape in the fluid shape shifts of group formations. Use of the dancers’ voices, body percussion and breath with the live drum and solo voice (Robyn and Te Auripo Kamira), tick all my favourite boxes and reinforce the coherent structure. Pei-Jung Lei’s Boundaries uses the confines of the small stage for full impact, bursting out of the box into the wing and auditorium spaces. A certain psychosis penetrates the space and is enriched by the more well developed vocabulary and the closeness of the gaze of solo dancers who, placed right on the edge of the proscenium frame, confront the audience. The horizontal and right angles of the travelling actions evoke a cityscape of claustrophobic proportions; another piece that deserves further development. On the whole both of these pieces support the students varying levels of technique and performance quality, and the inclusive philosophy of the Dance Studies programme is clearly embodied.

Overall, costumes are thoughtfully designed and complement the dances, using what are no doubt minimal budgets to the max. (I for one am glad to see the end of the underwear fad of last year). Similarly music is appropriate on the whole and, when used less predictably, adds value to the works. Lighting throughout the show (designed/operated by Rochelle Horton and Josh Bond) meets the challenge of such a complex programme, and in many instances achieves what often is missing, a dancerly feel and empathic atmospheres.

In summary, judging on this year’s Tertiary Colours the future of tertiary dance for New Zealand, Aotearoa is bright and the Tempo team are to be congratulated on providing this important opportunity for institutions to come together, see and hopefully appreciate a spectrum of different intentions.
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Tertiary Colours (2011)

A Spectrum of Intent

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