DANZ QUARTERLY No 5 September 2006

Festival Fever '06 - Get Dancing!

by Francesca Horsley and Catherine Pattison

Spring seems a natural time for dance festivals – and this year there is a feast of dance events, workshops and performances up and down the country.

The season kicked off with Wellington’s Dance Your Socks Off; now in full swing until the end of the month, with an impressive dance programme. The breadth of events includes Cuban Fusion, a Rock ‘n’ Roll party, a Swingtime Tea Dance and Feel the Heat Dance Extravaganza with celebrities from TV1 and TV3 dance shows, Going for Baroque by Crows Feet Dance and a celebration of world dance and folk traditions such as Polish and Scottish Country dancing. A season at BATS Theatre includes contemporary dance works Snapshots by Java Dance Company, I’m just sorting my shit out by the Naked Brastrap, Lucid by the Unit, and The Seeds of Love by Juliet Shelley and Annabel Reader.

Christchurch’s The Body Festival, is no less hectic with a two week festival of dance and physical theatre events all over the city from 15 September. There will be line dancing and workshops for everything from merengue to breakdance to poi. Contemporary works include Jack Gray’s View from the Gods, Java’s Rush Hour and Christchurch’s Scrambled Legs with Before I Say I Do and Julia Sadler’s site-specific Moth.

Dance acts will perform at the Dunedin Fringe Festival which will be staged from September 22 to October 8. The majority of the nine local and national groups are based at centrally-located Burns Hall – “incorporated right into the festival heart,” festival director Paul Smith says. Described as a “real multi-purpose space,” it will incorporate inter-disciplinary projections, installations and sculptures
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Paul envisions dance as a vital genre within the 85 acts listed on the programme. He is delighted to host several acts that are touring on from Christchurch’s Body Festival and Wellington’s Dance Your Socks Off.

In the Dunedin Fringe festival, Beautiful City who premiered at the 2006 Interdigitate New Media Festival in Auckland will explore the clash between urban and rural Aotearoa, using improvised dance, music and video performance. The now Dunedin-based Kilda Northcott is teaming up with Lyne Pringle in Fishnet, performing in the Fortune Theatre. Wellington’s The Unit will explore different emotional states and the extremes of the human psyche in Lucid. Also from the capital, Java Dance Company is set to present Snapshots and Rush Hour. Historic venue Sammy’s is the location chosen to host Spring-Up Boing, an interactive event integrating music, performance and design installations loosely based around a dance party format.

Dunedin’s dancers will be represented in Red Line Productions’ Insiron; a join-in evening of Ceroc Dance Dunedin; Octagon-staged RASA School of Dance’s contemporary, Bollywood and hip-hop performances, plus NuZtyle Hip Hop Dance Crew showcase their new works along with their prodigies, the NuZtyle Kidz and Stage Bouncers from Forbury School.

Overlapping the Dunedin Fringe Festival, Auckland’s Tempo˚ festival runs from 29 September to 15 October. Again there is a wealth of dance genres such as Bollywood, Boyzdance2 and youth dance shows such as Rapa Dance Collective and Pointy Dog And Friends. World dance events include The Jewel in the Ocean Of Life, Pride Power And Pathos by Kanan Deobhakta Dance and a Bollywood Dance Competition. The contemporary season opens with Raewyn Hill’s We are gathered here today, and includes Ballet Concierto by International ballet star Iñaki Urlezaga and Company, Touch Compass with a season of new works, and Jack Gray and Fishnet also include Tempo˚ in their touring circuit. Soul Speed is travelling from Raglan to perform Awe Wai Wai, and Company Z is producing an exciting programme of works.

These events are barely the tip of the iceberg and all four festivals feature a great variety of both international and homegrown dance, photography exhibitions, workshops and gatherings. So go on-line to find the full programmes – and get dancing!

Dance Your Socks Off - www.feelinggreat.co.nz
The Body - www.thebody.co.nz
Dunedin Fringe - www.dunedinfringe.org.nz
Tempo° - www.tempo.co.nz
Athletes of the Imagination - read review

Return to Contents page of DANZ QUARTERLY N0 5 September 2006