17 May 2012

Depressing but needing to be told

Deirdre Tarrant

9/11/2011 9:48:00 a.m.

Carnival Hound, Downstage Theatre, November 3. Reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant
INSPIRED by choreographer Maria Dabrowska’s own parents and their stories of the deprivations and destruction of the Second World War when they met here in New Zealand as settled immigrants from Poland and Holland, this family history finds expression onstage in a dark and powerful dance work. Eden Mulholland provides an evocative score and the theatrical intensity of director Jo Randerson creates a complex and multi-layered experience in the concrete bunker of a pared back Downstage theatre.
Three figures emerge from a pile of mannequin dummies, bodies without life but representing deception and rejection in a series of connecting tableaux. Dabrowska sets herself a solo that is all clarity, angles, aggression and danced at a ferocious speed as she seems to be fleeing the space.
A domestic dinner table,  an almost alive mannequin and the lonely, desperate and wonderfully sinuous Alex Leonhartsberger connect us to the tragedies of relationships that smoulder and erupt. His foil/alter-ego in this scene of ritual food sharing and later in his desperate longing to be wanted/needed/loved/ sexually satisfied? is the wonderfully gutsy and unattainable Mariana Rinaldi.  A spirited chair fight brings possession, competition, winning, teasing, losing into the mix.  Emotional blackmail, emotional demands, emotions surge and simmer.  Struggles to win, but what? Temptation lost and found, death and military horrors and ultimately the disembodied bodies find their own place and a trio of energised and positive dancers find their space in tight boxes of light and their technical precision and constrained yet compelling choreography leaves us wanting more.
A roller coaster for the senses and not an easy watch, but as the lights come up and we all release the body tension and breath we find we are holding we know we have been part of something very personal for our own history as well as for the performers charged with the responsibility of letting us in on Dabrowska’s own personal life journey. Powerful, depressing but an urgent story needing to be told.

Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

  • A question of nutrition

    Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
    Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
    Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.

  • Relay for cancer

    Organisers say Sunday’s Relay for Life is full to capacity with hundreds of Wellingtonians registered for the event.
    A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
    The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.

  • Osteoarthritis awareness

    Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis. 
    Arthritis is New Zealand’s leading cause of disability, affecting 305,000 adults, and osteoarthritis is its most common form.
    The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.


  • Wild walk

    Take part in the Big Walk at Zealandia on March 31.
    Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
    Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.

  • School pool

    The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
    The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
    Grants from the fund have also been made for pools at Wellington East Girls’ College, Barhampore School and Tawa School.

  • Easter bikers

    Motorcyclists are invited to get on their bikes and collect Easter eggs for families support from the Wellington City Mission.
    The charity run on April 1 is organised by motorcycle lobby group BONZ.
    Eggs can be donated at Red Baron Motorcylces in Alicetown. The registration fee for bikers is $10, plus the cost of Easter eggs.

  • Crafty

    Made on Marion opens on the site of the former Golding Handicrafts site in Marion St, from April 1.  They will continue to supply craft materials.

  • Ze upgrade

    Taranaki Street fuel users will notice that the Z Energy’s former Shell Service Station is closed.  Z are doing a “total revamp”.
    The job will take four weeks.

  • Newlands Moves

    Developer Ayal Aharoni has agreed to build only 90 instead of 220 houses on his six and a half hectares above Ngauranga Gorge in Newlands.  Only low density occupation will be allowed on the remaining 8.4 hectares.


  • Baring Head

    There's a new  draft plan out for what should happen at Baring Head.  It outlines how the Greater Wellington Regional council would like to manage the newest addition to its regional parks network. Grazing animals will go, motorised vehicles will be prohibited, predators will be controlled, and the lighthouse will be preserved. Submissions are invited.


  • It’s a wonder

    A new childcare centre in Newtown says it is dedicated to helping kids grow up healthy in mind, body and spirit. Little Wonders Childcare on Rintoul Street is an independent early childhood education and learning centre, the sixth centre to be opened by its Auckland-based owner. It caters to 100 children aged between three months and five years old and has been open for a little more than seven weeks.

  • Festival treats

    CHILDREN have not been forgotten by organisers of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.
    For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
    White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
    The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
    March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

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