NZ Dance Information Aug/Sept 2023
Discover out what’s taking place in New Zealand dance information!
The final quarter of the 12 months sees preparations transferring forward for the New Zealand College of Dance (NZSD) Efficiency Season at Southwards Automobile Museum (November 16 to 18) and Te Whaea Theatre (November 28 to December 2), demonstrating the skills of the College’s distinctive college students. Presenting two alternating programmes of ballet and up to date dance, these annual performances are a possibility to look at the rising stars of the dance world. In these specifically curated programmes, college students from throughout the College’s three 12 months teams will showcase their artistry, talent and flexibility on stage, performing extracts from current items alongside newly commissioned up to date works.
The ballet programme will embrace Val Caniparoli’s Double Cease and Road Songs, Helgi Tomasson’s Meistens Mozart and Lew Christensen’s Vivaldi Concerto Grosso. The up to date dance programme consists of extracts from The Starting of Nature, choreographed by former Australian Dance Theatre Inventive Director Garry Stewart, in addition to a revival of Amber Haines’ 2016 work, Incant. For extra info, go to nzschoolofdance.ac.nz.
The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC) is thrilled to announce the upcoming tour of Night Light, an exhilarating double bill set to light up Rotorua, Hamilton and New Plymouth this winter. Exploring an ancient sequence of nature in The Fibonacci and the blurred lines between fiction and reality in Uku – Behind the Canvas, Night Light premiered in Tāmaki Makaurau in 2022, to both critical and audience acclaim. Following its sellout premiere season in 2022, this year’s three city dates mark NZDC’s first mainstage national tour since the COVID-19 pandemic and includes the Company’s debut in Rotorua on August 12, as well as a return to Kirikiriroa Hamilton on August 17, and Ngā Motu New Plymouth on August 24. The Fibonacci by Tor Colombus opens up a dreamy terracotta world that explores the mathematical Fibonacci sequence. With a movement vocabulary that drifts effortlessly between the natural and the mechanical, The Fibonacci reveals a tapestry of pattern and form, which provokes a feeling of connection to something deeper than the detail of each individual action.
Tangata Māori choreographer Eddie Elliott’s Uku – Behind the Canvas explores the power of vulnerability and the strength within struggle. Anticipation and intensity are at the heart of movement paired with cleansing uku (clay) which symbolises the relationship between Hineahuone and Tāne – where we’ve come from and to where we will return. From floating through time and space, observing nature’s mysterious golden spirals in Colombus’ The Fibonacci to grounding down with feeling in Elliott’s Uku – Behind the Canvas where confronting storytelling is at its most raw, these two sublime performances make for an evening of earthy contrast that will leave you in awe of the talent and artistry brewing right here on our shores. Don’t miss this double bill pairing featuring works by two of Aotearoa’s most exciting choreographers on tour this August. For tickets and more information, head to nzdc.org.nz/stage/works/night-light.
The 33rd iteration of the world-renowned World of WearableArt™ (WOW) Present is ready to be one of many greatest, boldest, and brightest but, with 120 designers from 23 nations. The futuristic 2023 World of WearableArt™ Present: BEYOND options the return of the beloved WOW class, Weird Bra, unleashes an enormous forged of spectacular performers, and sees the TSB Area dripping in Gold on this 12 months’s function part of the identical title. The worldwide wearable artwork competitors supplies a singular alternative for its finalist designers, a lot of whom put together for years to be included within the line-up. The breathtaking stage present, which unites artwork, dance, aerial efficiency, music, and mind-blowing stage design and results, delivers an expertise like no different for audiences. Greater than $185,000 of awards and prizes are up for grabs in 2023, throughout three recurring sections, Aotearoa, Avant-garde and Open, and three extra sections, Mars and Past, Gold, andthe iconic Weird Bra.
“As soon as once more we discover ourselves in awe on the degree of artistic ingenuity, craftmanship and pure inventiveness that designers deliver to the WOW Competitors,” says WOW Head of Competitors Sarah Nathan. “Within the 2023 WOW Present: BEYOND, audiences will see a mind-bending array of supplies starting from potato luggage, shoe rubber, bees wax, latex and bamboo, to drone waste, Barbie dolls, kids’s sweets, keyboards and artificial hair! This 12 months’s finalists additionally present moments of reflection and dialog as they current again to us among the most urgent world problems with our time. Quick trend waste, psychological well being, ladies’s empowerment, local weather change and on-line bullying are all conveyed by essentially the most extraordinary creations of wearable artwork.”
The finalists will undergo two additional phases of judging, during which they’re assessed on stage, earlier than the winners are introduced on the 2023 WOW Present Awards Evening on Friday 22 September at TSB Area. WOW 2023 takes up residence within the TSB Area in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, from 20 September to eight October 2023. Tickets are actually on sale now at www.worldofwearableart.com.
Following a triumphant world premiere in 2019, the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s (RNZB) acclaimed Hansel & Gretel returns in time for Christmas 2023. Choreographer Loughlan Prior, with composer Claire Cowan and designer Kate Hawley, created a magical world with delectable characters of their charming interpretation of the traditional fairy story. RNZB Appearing Inventive Director David McAllister says, “It’s such a thrill to complete the 12 months with this most pleasant and cautionary story informed with such wit and glamour. Each component – dance, music and design – come collectively in a present that dazzles from starting to finish. It’s a luxurious approach for the Royal New Zealand Ballet to shut our 70th anniversary 12 months; showcasing the array of expertise throughout each little bit of this manufacturing. A feast for each sense to take pleasure in as we put together for the festive season.”
Of the work and its evolution, Prior says, “The possibility to deliver Hansel & Gretel again to the stage this 12 months is an immense deal with. Revisiting this character pushed manufacturing supplies so many great roles for the artists of the RNZB to sink their enamel into, and I’m actually wanting ahead to working with a brand new era of dancers to deliver this scrumptious manufacturing to life!”
With the unique manufacturing, composer Claire Cowan turned the primary girl to compose a full-length rating for RNZB. One evaluation described her music as a “star of the evening” and “a triumph”. The design, by set and costume designer Kate Hawley whose movie work consists of Crimson Peak, Fringe of Tomorrow and Mortal Engines, is the last word in eye-candy. Hansel & Gretel will journey to Wellington, Napier, Palmerston North, Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Takapuna from 26 October to 19 December. For tickets and additional info, head to rnzb.org.nz/shows/hansel-gretel.
By Laura Di Orio of Dance Informa.
