DANZ QUARTERLY No 10 December 2007
Sarah-Jayne Howard – Moving Marble
By Francesca Horsley
When you see Sarah-Jayne Howard dance - you don’t forget her easily. From the moment she appears on stage she exudes energy, fluid motion and character. And it is always a treat for New Zealand audiences to see her as most of Sarah-Jayne’s dancing career has been across the ditch.
Happily she returns regularly to perform with NZ choreographers – Michael Parmenter, Raewyn Hill and most memorably last year in Douglas Wright’s ‘Black Milk’. Naked but covered by a streaming crimson wig, she appeared as a strange mythical earth-mother that whirled, stamped her high heels and snapped scissors at the air with powerful authority.
She is just as striking to meet, tall and athletic – although thankfully nothing like that creature. She, along with the six other laureate recipients, was waiting to be photographed for the official portraits. Although in the past, choreographers Shona McCullagh, Neil Ieremia and Douglas Wright have been selected as laureates, Sarah-Jayne is the first practising dancer to be selected, and at 31, the youngest laureate.
It seems Sarah-Jayne has always pushed the age limit. After first studying tap and ballet in her home town of Stratford and later New Plymouth, she joined the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington at fifteen. After graduating she sent a video over to the Australia Dance Theatre requesting an audition, omitting her age. “I was very young, 18; I think you were meant to be 23. They wrote back saying they wanted to see me, how old was I? I avoided the question again and they said ‘look if you’re really young it’s ok, you can still come over but it’s at your risk, because we want mature dancers.’ I went over and got the job.”
She has remained in Australia for the last ten years, and the time over four years with Meryl Tankard at the ADT, provided a strong foundation for her career. “I learnt amazing things - all Meryl’s shows were really different, she had danced with Pina Bausch and her work was dance-theatre based. At one stage I played Aurora, a beautiful princess, and we were tap-dancing fairies. In another we did Bulgarian open throat singing; we were all taught how to sing.”
Sarah-Jayne also worked with Garry Stewart, the present director of ADT, known for his highly velocity, explosive choreography. “I was in Garry’s company THWACK! where we learnt break-dancing and acrobatics and this filtered into his current work. I love that intensity – the power, power!” Does she worry she will injure herself? “You just have to be quick and fast into the floor and not have bits sticking out – you have to be precise. I think if you are technically strong, you don’t get hurt.”
Now freelance, she often guests with his company, along with Melbourne’s Chunky Move and others. Between gigs she teaches with Ausdance and Bangara. While Australia’s dance scene provides a range of work, she says it is hard work to sustain a freelance career. The Laureate award money of $50,000 “is amazing, an amazing opportunity just to be able to do things that you really want to do – it means that you feel valued.”
At the time of our interview, Sarah-Jayne was shortly to leave for London, to present a season of her show, ‘Road Kill’ at the Barbican Theatre. She collaborated with friends Gavin Webber and Grayson Millwood, to produce her first full-length choreography. All three dance in the show, which alludes to the recent Backpacker Murders. “It tells of a couple who are lost in the Australian outback and their car has broken down. We have a real car and phone box on stage, and although it has some funny bits it is quite scary.” Sarah-Jayne said she would love the opportunity to bring the show to New Zealand.
The work is dance-theatre, and Sarah-Jayne says she is keen to create works where dance and theatrical elements have equal balance. “Sometimes in dance-theatre, the dance drops away and the theatricality is more important, but more often it is the other way around – the dance is good but when people speak the text is doesn’t work so well. My partner is an actor and we would like to make a work where both are equally strong.”
She says working with Kiwi choreographers Parmenter and Wright has had a huge influence on her technique, especially her ability to go to the floor swift and fast. She believes NZ dancers have passed on these choreographers’ techniques into the Australian dance vocabulary.
Watching Wright’s ‘Forever’ and ‘Elegy’ as a student inspired her to follow contemporary dance rather than ballet. “’Elegy’ is the most beautiful dance I have ever seen, ever.” I don’t know anyone who can go to the floor like Douglas. He is swift and quick – like a cat. I have worked with beautiful, fabulous people but I think Douglas just has magic. Working in ‘Black Milk’ was amazing.”
It was at the ‘Black Milk’ premiere in Invercargill when Sarah-Jayne received her most treasured compliment. “Afterwards Kilda Northcott leant over to Douglas and said – ‘she’s like watching marble move’. Coming from Kilda….!”
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