Urban Condition
Wellington Performing Arts Centre, Wellington
09/02/2007 - 11/02/2007
Production Details
choreographer: Leonie Douglas
original music compositions by Richi Singleton (Phoenix Foundation
new music collaboratively arranged by Isaac Smith, Charley Devenport and new Pacific Island artists.
Urban Condition is a striking new dance theatre work about aging, indigenous culture and the beauty of the female form.
A fabulous Fringe Festival dance show driven to support the growth of New Zealand’s multi cultural identity where contemporary dance theatre and Pacific Island dance intertwine together with dancers, live music and original music compositions.
Urban Condition is an intriguing blend of ballet, contemporary dance and hula – expressions of Western urban culture integrated with original music. Inspired by the rhythms and tides found in nature, revealing the freedom from restriction and cultural separation with raw, abstract representations of ethnic celebration.
“I want my choreography to reveal my developing dance lexicon, which is designed especially for the female dancer, based on dance forms from the Pacific Islands” says Kiwi/Fijian choreographer Leonie Douglas.
Douglas started classical ballet at six years old and since graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance (2000) she has become a freelance dancer and choreographer creating two shows Native I (2002), Native II (2003). She went through a professional development process Workshop Island Fusion (2004) and has performed for Mary Jane O’Reilly, the Auckland Dance Company, Merenia Gray, Opera New Zealand and many grass-roots companies.
Also starring German dancer Doreen Heidrich a dancer with experience from high profile companies in Europe, Natalie Hona an NZSD graduate (2005) and has performed, toured with Black Grace, and performing artist, tap dancer Wendy Westwood from the USA.
The work includes original music compositions by Richi Singleton (Phoenix Foundation), new music collaboratively arranged by Isaac Smith, Charley Devenport and new Pacific Island artists.
A fresh cutting edge dance theatre work, crossing performing arts boundaries to create an intriguing and unique experience. Working across cultural and artistic boundaries, Condition Urban appeals to families and individuals any age over 15 years, from any cultural background and brings together a broad range of theatrical and contemporary entertainment.
performers
Natalie Hona, Wendy Westwood, Doreen Heidrich and Leonie Douglas
Dance , Dance-theatre ,
More robust process required
Review by Lyne Pringle 12th Feb 2007
Urban Condition by Leonie Douglas is a slick show with good production values offering an "intriguing blend of ballet, contemporary dance and hula" according to the press release. It also promises to "cross the boundaries that separate music and dance".
The latter intention is quite well realised but the former intention of blending dance genres is not. The various dance styles sit awkwardly with each other and have not been really investigated in order to develop an original movement vocabulary. The choreography too superficially renders the themes of the work which were in themselves confused.
There are talented collaborators on board and Douglas has a skill for crafting the rhythm and theatrical elements of a work. The ‘star’ of the show was perhaps the really interesting and evocative lighting by Toby Papazaglou. The music played live and well by Issac Smith and Charley Devonport with recorded sound from Richie Singleton suited the piece and was richly textured.
Natalie Hona, Wendy Westwood Doreen Heidich and Douglas herself all danced with energy and commitment and had moments to shine. Douglas is a great mover there is a wild energy about her that is compelling and Hona showed beautiful articulation. Heidrich held the stage when she launched into a speech about motherhood versus preening in German.
The dance flowed through many sequences; one minute in an industrial type landscape with linear robotic movement, tulle masks covering the dancers faces and waiters as percussionists- a strong beginning actually; next mothers and babies versus the superficiality and vanity of womanhood with tiny strollers much arse wiggling, frozen smiles and the dancers using their voices in a kind of chant; next in a murky pseudo classical dreamscape with the strains of Bach on the cello and dancers in the shadow looking like escapees from a deconstructed Les Sylphides, a frenetic and lovely duet for bass and cello then a sag in terms of energy in the middle where the musicians were left to carry the piece (good to see the musicians inhabiting the space though); then into the ‘south pacific’ section of the work where the inkling of something new in terms of movement almost peeks through.
Westwood finishes the show in tap shoes under a red spotlight and suddenly we are in South Pacific – the musical. This image was a strange juxtaposition and potentially really dynamic but this chance for a real comment on the exoticization of the ‘South Seas’ was again not fully realized.
Douglas needs to move her energy from the trappings of the theatrical presentation to a core investigation of a physical language that expresses the ideas that she is able to put into words i.e. "the choreography … exposes my developing movement lexicon, based on dance forms of the South Pacific." There needs to be a more robust and innovative choreographic process at work here, in order to realise her full talent.
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