Imaginitive initiative
Garth Wilshere.
Leaps and Sounds,
NZSO and Royal New Zealand Ballet,
Michael Fowler Centre, June 16,
Reviewed by Garth Wilshere.
This collaboration was a great, imaginative initiative. The pieces were chosen by the young choreographers and accompanied by large NZSO forces conducted by Hamish McKeich.
Each of the works musically and choreographically had something to note. They were all entertaining and reflected their youth, well-captured, in generally well-conceived ideas with an overriding, exuberance, energy and excitement. Some worked better than others, but all were good.
The music though varied was mostly traditional in style; hints of minimalism, and echoes of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Glass and Adams to name a few.
Paul Matthews’s contained and cleverly angular moves in musicboxgirls to Matthew Child’s Alone in the Night was an evocative opener.
A trio of two men and a woman suggesting the intimacy of relationships in Adrian Harper’s Evocation to Max Wilkinson’s Evocation from the Seas was eloquent.
Great use of the stage in Qi Huan’s choreography, tested boundaries for six dancers, with sweepIng music from Christina Reid’s Tales of Greece Suite III Mighty Odysseus.
Minimalist intensity a la Philip Glass was mesmerising in 4 +1 by Dimitri Kleioris to Corwin Newall’s 2007 piece Caught in the Headlights; an introspective dancer reading, progressing to capture dreaming inspirations.
Percussive colour in Tabea Squire’s 2007 Tiszavirag had Laughtan Prior’s six dancers in Between Us, creating shape-shifting images in great costumes.
Sam Shapiro’s moves to Umer Zakaria’s Dreams of Power brought teenage rivalry, with two competitive and combative sportspeople training and showing off their prowess, one a fast skipping boxer the other lighter and more nimble.
The title said it all for Feral by Jaered Glavin to Robbie Ellis’s 2009 score, six wild dancers. The highlight both choreographically and musically.
[Inner] Alex Taylor’s 2011 score had thoughtful elegance in Brendan Bradshow’s choreography for five dancers.
A crowd favourite with great humour and fun, in descriptive, Olympic colour costumes ended the night. Zakaria’s second piece from 2010 The Persistence of our Youth was used by Kohei Iwamoto in wind from Us, four playful clowns vying for the ballerina’s attention.
NZSO and Royal New Zealand Ballet,
Michael Fowler Centre, June 16,
Reviewed by Garth Wilshere.
This collaboration was a great, imaginative initiative. The pieces were chosen by the young choreographers and accompanied by large NZSO forces conducted by Hamish McKeich.
Each of the works musically and choreographically had something to note. They were all entertaining and reflected their youth, well-captured, in generally well-conceived ideas with an overriding, exuberance, energy and excitement. Some worked better than others, but all were good.
The music though varied was mostly traditional in style; hints of minimalism, and echoes of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Glass and Adams to name a few.
Paul Matthews’s contained and cleverly angular moves in musicboxgirls to Matthew Child’s Alone in the Night was an evocative opener.
A trio of two men and a woman suggesting the intimacy of relationships in Adrian Harper’s Evocation to Max Wilkinson’s Evocation from the Seas was eloquent.
Great use of the stage in Qi Huan’s choreography, tested boundaries for six dancers, with sweepIng music from Christina Reid’s Tales of Greece Suite III Mighty Odysseus.
Minimalist intensity a la Philip Glass was mesmerising in 4 +1 by Dimitri Kleioris to Corwin Newall’s 2007 piece Caught in the Headlights; an introspective dancer reading, progressing to capture dreaming inspirations.
Percussive colour in Tabea Squire’s 2007 Tiszavirag had Laughtan Prior’s six dancers in Between Us, creating shape-shifting images in great costumes.
Sam Shapiro’s moves to Umer Zakaria’s Dreams of Power brought teenage rivalry, with two competitive and combative sportspeople training and showing off their prowess, one a fast skipping boxer the other lighter and more nimble.
The title said it all for Feral by Jaered Glavin to Robbie Ellis’s 2009 score, six wild dancers. The highlight both choreographically and musically.
[Inner] Alex Taylor’s 2011 score had thoughtful elegance in Brendan Bradshow’s choreography for five dancers.
A crowd favourite with great humour and fun, in descriptive, Olympic colour costumes ended the night. Zakaria’s second piece from 2010 The Persistence of our Youth was used by Kohei Iwamoto in wind from Us, four playful clowns vying for the ballerina’s attention.
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