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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue 21 - October, November, December 2010
What Lies Ahead?
by Caroyn Cairns
Fleur de Thier, after a successful seven-year
run with her Christchurch based performance
company ‘Scrambled Legs’, takes a personal
and professional leap to focus on choreography
- with the goal of moving from being considered
an emerging New Zealand artist to becoming an
established choreographer. Fleur talks with Dr
Carolyn Cairns about her past and present work,
and her plans for the future.
Finding a time to meet Fleur for a coffee and chat was a task in itself as she juggles her day between a
myriad of activities in preparation for the upcoming Christchurch Body Festival and her other ongoing
commitments. We finally sit down at the chosen venue - the historic Boat Shed’s Café. This seemed fitting
as many years ago, just down the road at the Art’s Centre - another of Christchurch’s landmark buildings -
I had taken Fleur for some private ballet lessons as she prepared for a grade exam.
Neither Fleur nor I are too keen to state just how many years ago that was, but let’s just say that we both
qualify to dance in one of Fleur’s latest enterprises - the recently formed company ‘Rebound’. Established
last year, the members of this company are experienced dancers, aged forty years and over, with many
having had professional careers. Fleur, who both dances and choreographs with Rebound, explained
the age selection as being a purposeful choice, giving the dancers the opportunity to share their depth of
knowledge and expertise with a maturity that only a life of experience can bring.
On a personal level, Fleur expressed her enjoyment of returning to dance, “I’m really passionate about
Rebound because it gives me the opportunity to get back on stage myself…it’s very liberating”. She stated
that audiences have responded well to the new company, “…they leave so inspired”, and its success has
attracted people wishing to join in the venture. The members share the workload, all contributing to the
process of choreography. In Rebound’s next performance - Out of the Box, September 25th, Repertory
Theatre - five members are presenting new works, including Fleur who will be premiering her latest piece
entitled No Jack in this Box. Later the company will travel to Oamaru to perform at the Opera House.
Repositioning herself, to increase her profile as a choreographer, Fleur has made the decision to disband
her company Scrambled Legs. She has found that although she has been teaching and producing works
since 1998, working within the structure of Scrambled Legs has kept her name somewhat hidden from view. Fleur aims to work both locally and nationally to establish
herself as a choreographer more firmly.
With this focus, Fleur is busy with numerous choreographic
engagements with many performance groups and companies in
Christchurch. A highlight is her work with the Southern Lights Dance
Company over the past year. Formed in 2009 with the support of
CNZ, this Christchurch based company is chartered to engage
three choreographers each year: an international choreographer;
and two New Zealanders – one considered established and the
second being an emerging talent. The group of three selected
for the upcoming Body Festival season - ‘2010’, October 4th,
James Hay Theatre - includes Riki Von Falken from Germany,
Maria Dabrowska, and Fleur as the emerging choreographer. Last
year Fleur premiered her new work entitled Perch and thoroughly
enjoyed the process of working with “some of New Zealand’s best
dancers”. She will be remounting Perch for the upcoming Southern
Lights season, giving her an opportunity to evolve the piece further.
The company will then travel with these works to the Otago Arts
Festival and Tempo.
Fleur is also the movement director for Tablo’s upcoming Body
Festival production It’ll End in Tears, October 5-8th, The Open
Stage. Tablo, The National Theatre Company of New Zealand,
specialises in mask and puppetry work and has come to fruition
after ten years in the planning. Fleur describes her role with
this company as being more of a choreographic mentor for the
performers – helping them develop dance sequences that will
embellish this unique, aesthetic artform. She saw their prior show,
and stated “I was really impressed - beautiful work, (and) I saw this
as another exciting avenue to explore”.
Following the Body Festival, Fleur will be working with Jolt,
Christchurch’s company of mixed ability young dancers, both
with and without disabilities. They are preparing for a major
work in December at the Christchurch Art Gallery, to be held in
conjunction with the visiting Ron Mueck Exhibition. Working with
the hyperrealist’s surreal and evocative sculptures will make for
a fascinating project. Mueck’s collection of diminutive and giant
human sculptures is extraordinarily detailed, and reveals much
about human nature. Described by art critics as “confronting”
and “haunting”, it will be extremely interesting to see what Fleur
produces to accompany and enhance Mueck’s work.
Wanting to get an update on the progress of the Red Theatre
project, I asked how things were standing. Fleur, who sits on the
Board of Trustees for this venture, explained the difficulties in
establishing a dedicated theatre space. While considered by many
to be vital for the future of performance in Christchurch, obstacles
continue to thwart the project from becoming a reality. As is typical,
it is not for want of expertise, passion, nor drive by those involved
but, as is often the case with such artistic endeavours, due to the
almost insurmountable issue of finding an on-going secured source
of funding. Fleur is also on the Board of Trustee for the Dance and
Physical Theatre Trust. This organisation continues to go from
strength to strength, producing the annual Body Festival, running
programmes such as Dancing Like the Stars, and establishing the
South Island Dance Network.
As a choreographer with the facility to extend herself across an
extremely broad range of ages and abilities, Fleur’s adaptability
makes her receptive to new opportunities as they arise. She
explains how one day she will be choreographing for a team of
professional dancers – backed with full CNZ funding – and the next
day working with a classroom full of primary school children as she
choreographs the Wearable Arts section of Christchurch’s Cultural
Festival. Fleur finds such variety to be professionally motivating,
“that’s what I love about this job – it’s this diversity that is so good”.
While she continues to be fully committed to maintaining and
developing her strong presence in Christchurch, next on Fleur’s
agenda is exploring the possibility of choreographing works for
companies and performance groups beyond Christchurch, and is
currently in discussions to put plans in place for such work in the
future.
With our time up, Fleur heads off to her regular weekly teaching and
choreographic classes with Hagley Dance Company. As I walk to
the car I can’t help feeling impressed with the way in which Fleur
has managed to transform her passion for dance into a personally
fulfilling and professionally successful career. She has certainly
come a tremendously long way since being that little ballerina
diligently practising tendues at the barre.
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