School in good heart
KYLIAN and KIWI, Graduation performance by the New Zealand School of Dance, Te Whaea November 17 and 18, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant.
THIS year there are two performances for the students to show their abilities. A real pleasure to see a body of four works by Jiri Kylian, a master choreographer. Strong lines, control and interesting command of interactions, were shown by all the dancers but, for me, the most successful were the cantabile of the Songs of a Wayfarer and the power in both Helio Lima and Du Yan Hau in the evocative Stoolgame. The following night many of these dancers were back onstage with KIWI, five works by five New Zealand choreographers with distinct traits and vocabulary stamping individual style on each work. Sarah Foster’s Tragic Best had the quirky angles, theatrical twists and unexpected energies of street wit that is developing as her trademark. Malia Johnston in Atoms & Eve moved dancers sinuously with individual phrases and patterned sequences that firmly connected her bodies to the earth. Solos by Lisa Brooker and Zoe Dunwoodie stood out. Craig Bary used a picnic table to develop a travelling game of relationships and conversations in his vibrant Go Home Stay Home. Michael Parmenter revisited Rhapsody, a solo first made for Bary as a student and now taken on a new ownership by dancer Tom Bradley. Raewyn Hill’s ability to seemingly suspend horizontal bodies en masse was a grand finale in Dances for Sixteen. The NZSD is in good heart. The dancers are strong, positive and projecting a real drive. It will be interesting to see the paths they forge out in the very tough world of ‘being a dancer’.
THIS year there are two performances for the students to show their abilities. A real pleasure to see a body of four works by Jiri Kylian, a master choreographer. Strong lines, control and interesting command of interactions, were shown by all the dancers but, for me, the most successful were the cantabile of the Songs of a Wayfarer and the power in both Helio Lima and Du Yan Hau in the evocative Stoolgame. The following night many of these dancers were back onstage with KIWI, five works by five New Zealand choreographers with distinct traits and vocabulary stamping individual style on each work. Sarah Foster’s Tragic Best had the quirky angles, theatrical twists and unexpected energies of street wit that is developing as her trademark. Malia Johnston in Atoms & Eve moved dancers sinuously with individual phrases and patterned sequences that firmly connected her bodies to the earth. Solos by Lisa Brooker and Zoe Dunwoodie stood out. Craig Bary used a picnic table to develop a travelling game of relationships and conversations in his vibrant Go Home Stay Home. Michael Parmenter revisited Rhapsody, a solo first made for Bary as a student and now taken on a new ownership by dancer Tom Bradley. Raewyn Hill’s ability to seemingly suspend horizontal bodies en masse was a grand finale in Dances for Sixteen. The NZSD is in good heart. The dancers are strong, positive and projecting a real drive. It will be interesting to see the paths they forge out in the very tough world of ‘being a dancer’.
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