From There to Here
Deirdre Tarrant
TIMES are tough and historically, tough times produce a will to identify and to belong.
The arts play a fundamental role in this defining process for us as people and as a country.
2010 has been a good year for dance with performance standing alongside a burgeoning interest in actually “doing it”. Classes for the community are full of Kiwis who want to be dancing, be it ballet, belly dance, tango, salsa or burlesque!
Onstage audiences had their opportunities to escape and be challenged by the physicality and power that dance and music offer. Here is a review of those deserving comment and that have strong memories for me as the year closes...
It was an International Festival year and of the three international works still stand out - Sutra for its austerity, Happy as Larry for the individual solo roles that related so well to the real world, and Good Morning Mr Gershwin for its historical perspective and exuberance.
Footnote Dance had Claire O’Neil’s Mtyland in the festival and it was great to see New Zealand dancers up there with the best. The Royal New Zealand Ballet started the year with a triple bill From Here to There and a welcome chance to revisit David Dawson’s luscious A Million Kisses to my Skin. It has been a year of revisiting at the ballet with both their classical narrative seasons restages.
Carmen failed to ignite but Nutcracker proved to be as irresistible as ever and a fitting tribute to farewell Garry Harris as he leaves the company. Footnote’s Made in New Zealand gave us works by Malia Johnston, Sarah Foster, Michael Parmenter and Ross McCormack and Johnston’s evocative Purlieu went offshore to Shanghai as part of the New Zealand Day celebrations at the World Expo. The Real Hot Bitches sparkled in lycra in The Fierceness and Sam Truebridge set us some confrontational messages in his Ecology in Fifths. Footnote Forte took the audience on a Wellington waterfront walk to three venues and the diversity of works by Malia Johnston, Maria Dabrowska, Sarah Foster, Lyne Pringle,Sarah Knox and Kristian Larsen. The Imperial Russian Ballet brought Sleeping Beauty in another of their whirlwind tours and the students at the New Zealand School of Dance finished our year with a double barrel programme.
- Kylian to celebrate works by this internationally renown chorographer and KIWI to celebrate our own makers of contemporary dance. A good year.
There are wonderful dancers out there in a very tight economic time making dance and making waves. Bravo to all those who make work and share it with us. Bravo to all those who go to classes and have dance in their daily lives. Have a great dancing Christmas and maybe a little lie down over the holidays!
Deirdre Tarrant
The arts play a fundamental role in this defining process for us as people and as a country.
2010 has been a good year for dance with performance standing alongside a burgeoning interest in actually “doing it”. Classes for the community are full of Kiwis who want to be dancing, be it ballet, belly dance, tango, salsa or burlesque!
Onstage audiences had their opportunities to escape and be challenged by the physicality and power that dance and music offer. Here is a review of those deserving comment and that have strong memories for me as the year closes...
It was an International Festival year and of the three international works still stand out - Sutra for its austerity, Happy as Larry for the individual solo roles that related so well to the real world, and Good Morning Mr Gershwin for its historical perspective and exuberance.
Footnote Dance had Claire O’Neil’s Mtyland in the festival and it was great to see New Zealand dancers up there with the best. The Royal New Zealand Ballet started the year with a triple bill From Here to There and a welcome chance to revisit David Dawson’s luscious A Million Kisses to my Skin. It has been a year of revisiting at the ballet with both their classical narrative seasons restages.
Carmen failed to ignite but Nutcracker proved to be as irresistible as ever and a fitting tribute to farewell Garry Harris as he leaves the company. Footnote’s Made in New Zealand gave us works by Malia Johnston, Sarah Foster, Michael Parmenter and Ross McCormack and Johnston’s evocative Purlieu went offshore to Shanghai as part of the New Zealand Day celebrations at the World Expo. The Real Hot Bitches sparkled in lycra in The Fierceness and Sam Truebridge set us some confrontational messages in his Ecology in Fifths. Footnote Forte took the audience on a Wellington waterfront walk to three venues and the diversity of works by Malia Johnston, Maria Dabrowska, Sarah Foster, Lyne Pringle,Sarah Knox and Kristian Larsen. The Imperial Russian Ballet brought Sleeping Beauty in another of their whirlwind tours and the students at the New Zealand School of Dance finished our year with a double barrel programme.
- Kylian to celebrate works by this internationally renown chorographer and KIWI to celebrate our own makers of contemporary dance. A good year.
There are wonderful dancers out there in a very tight economic time making dance and making waves. Bravo to all those who make work and share it with us. Bravo to all those who go to classes and have dance in their daily lives. Have a great dancing Christmas and maybe a little lie down over the holidays!
Deirdre Tarrant
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