DANZ QUARTERLY - Issue No 19 April, May June 2010

Editorial

I was privileged to attend a number of dance performances at Wellington’s New
Zealand International Arts Festival in February and March. Most revealed European
influences, mainly from France and Belgium. They were all stimulating and enjoyable.

Aside from the artistry of the dancers, what was curious was the predominance of
sets involving large, inanimate yet moveable objects.  In Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s
Sutra, there was an austere set of 22 plain pinewood coffin-sized boxes which the
dancers used to manipulate into ingenious patterns and constructions; leaping
from and hiding inside the objects. Transports Exceptionnels, a French work,
involved a solo dancer performing a duet with a front-end loader: a fanciful
tormented love match.  He was carried aloft by the machine; one arm hanging
onto the turning arm, or his body cast across the bucket. In the Australian work
Happy as Larry by Shaun Parker, a large rotating two-sided blackboard was
the centre of attention for the ensemble of dancers. They drew with chalk,
leapt up, smudging themselves – and jumped off its considerable size. Even the
Swedish Cirkus Cirkor’s Inside Out used old fashioned chairs, boxes, batons
and springs to present their tricks.

Is this a trend, or just coincidence? Were these inanimate objects a large metaphor for embodying hegemonic dominance or technology, or a statement about our relationship with the digital age? Interestingly, there was little or no use of video film backdrops – so prevalent in New Zealand and international productions over the past decade.

Festival such as the Wellington event offer a portal into the shared world of creative
expression – reminding us that nothing holds – other than the restless intelligence of dance.

Francesca Horsley

Editor

Cover Image: The Royal NZ Ballet

Danz Quarterly Issue 19 - April, May, June 2010

Contents

Les Belles Vilaines by Catherine Pattison
Kate Grace's French dancing classes in Dunedin.

The Tango Embrace by Karen Phelps
A travellers experience of social tango classes and milongas in Buenos Aires.

The Music of the Dance by Francesca Horsley
Eden Mulholland, one of New Zealand's few dance sound score composers, on working with choreographers and companies including Atamira Dance Collective, Okareka Dance, Michael Parmenter and Malia Johnson.

Moving the Masses in Style by Lyne Pringle
Choreographers share their approaches to choreographing for large groups.

Green are the Islands edited by Celia Jenkins
A look back at the New Zealand performance at the World Expo in Osaka Japan in 1970 with choreographer and artistic director Leigh Brewer

Still in Love with Ballet by Ann Hunt
Gary Harris, who is leaving the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) after ten years as Artistic Director, talks about his influences, career highlights and his time in New Zealand.

DANZ Resource
Best Practice & Business Ethics by Tania Kopytko
A discussion on good professional practice in dance including ethical and compliance issues.

Rigmor Gnatt Remembered by Jennifer Shennan
The life and influence of Rigmor Gnatt, wife of Poul Gnatt who founded the New Zealand Ballet.

B Boying (part two) by Radamez Smith (Future), Sara Tamati (SpexOne) and Dr April K. Henderson
Recommendations for sustaining and growing the dance in Aotearoa.

Reviews
Book: Black Milk (Douglas Wright and John Savage, 2009), reviewed by Raewyn Whyte
Graduation 09 (New Zealand School of Dance), reviewed by Ann Hunt
Interject, Disrupt, Vanish (The University of Waikato), reviewed by Karen Barbour
Dance at Wellington Fringe Festival 2010, reviewed by Jenny Stevenson
International Festival of the Arts 2010, reviewed by Ann Hunt

Kōwhiti by Jenny Stevenson
Matariki festival of Maori contemporary dance

Dancing Across the Disciplines by Francesca Horsley
Previews of the Tertiary Dance Festival in Dunedin and the ballet Don Quixote in Tauranga.

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Editorial contact danz@danz.org.nz