DANZ QUARTERLY - No 8 July, August, September 2007

Reviews

FRINGE '07 Highlights
9 February – 4 March 2007
Wellington
Lyne Pringle

It was pleasing to see such strong work coming from young women in the recent Fringe Festival. There is a lot of talent coming through and it is encouraging that these artists are finding ways to present their work despite the difficulty of accessing funding. Here are some of my highlights from the festival. For the full reviews go to www.theatreview.co.nz

Quixotic Parables created and performed by Clare Luiten and Alexa Wilson is full of feminine courage. Luiten presenting ‘Women and Honour: Notes on Lying’ has beautiful control in her body and is unafraid of stillness. She offered one of the most thrilling sequences of the Fringe, a rigorous series of movements across the back of the stage where the body is flung, wrapped, taut, furious, disheveled, distorted; the hair wild and loose, building tension until the body explodes into paroxysms of movement that are barely believable as the sound builds to an ear shattering crescendo. Damn fine choreography and a thrillingly articulate body!

Alexa Wilson choreographs and performs ‘Make [It] Up’– an unconventional offering, provoking an unconventional response. “So girlie girl with the sword/neon tube/seaweed whip slashing attitude, cleaning a glass house in fast motion and dancing, staggering in the rain, on screen, while your other self slashes said neon tube through the space in a cast off wedding dress, the sword of your intellect slicing through the conventional space between us in your martial art-moulded, flexible, nonchalant form. What do you want this reviewer scribbling in the shadows to make of this work on our first internet dance/date? Shall I trick you? Throw a potato at you from the audience that says ‘Your work stinks, tidy it up!’  Shower nice platitudes ‘Your work is very interesting, it has lots of bits in it, don’t it ‘? Am I in danger of being deconstructed in your divine trickster reality – mesmerized by your mastery of paradox as your sword slices through an audience member – how in control are you?”

‘The Leaning Tower of Penchant’ by Back Lit Productions is performed at 'The Ruins' in Tasman Street. It is quite an undertaking to do site specific work and this large group did it well, drawing the audience into a surreal world of penchant - i.e. likeness, fondness, desire, weakness, predilection, affinity. Deep rumblings of personal proclivities were on display here.

There was an element of risk to the evening that left one feeling slightly tilted as the action and a series of very striking images and performances swirled around us. Group devised work with personal gems surrendered for the greater good is an admirable and unique way to work. Back Lit Productions deserve congratulations for tackling this gnarly process and for taking dance out of the safety of the theatre. Continuing to hone their choreographic skills, as well as developing the ideas they contribute to the group, will lead to some brilliant discoveries - I look forward to more of their penchants being revealed.

Chance, staged in the early evening with minimal lights, involved two sinuous and playful dancers, Maria Dabrowska and Alex Leonhartsberger, using a combination of improvised and choreographed movement to explore the possibilities of their bodies in contact, not in contact, and the relationship with a very close audience.

It is great to see Dabrowska met by a partner with equal dexterity and strength as a performer. She is moving beautifully with a new sense of abandonment and freedom as well as an expansion in her vocabulary. Leonhartsberger is so satisfying and delicious to watch; a gorgeous mover with a deep honesty in the choices that he makes in the moment.

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