The Tempo Dance Festival showcases powerful, engaging work.
Mariana Rinaldi in body/fight/time
Semi-human, almost childlike figures, encased in neon-coloured lycra, belonged to a consumer-driven community. Rhythmic movement motifs were interrupted as dancers obsessively stuffed paper objects under the costumes, their bodies swelling with misshaped protuberances. Hullapolloi, by Kate McIntosh and Jo Randerson, performed by Footnote dancers, was one of the excellent works at this year’s Auckland dance festival, Tempo.
Echo 1, choreographed by Riki von Falken, one of three works in the Southern Lights programme, was a remarkable intellectual work that interrogated our relationship with space and confinement through the lens of an inner world. Three dancers – Julia Milsom, Aleasha Seaward and Hannah Tasker-Poland – created private, controlled landscapes, alternating air punches with subtle, introspective arm and shoulder movement. A dark soundtrack evoked an increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere, as the trapped dancers were finally reconciled to freedom within constraint.
The Prime Cuts showcase included Brunhilde Observing Gunther, by Mia Mason, a semi-serious look at a relationship’s hurtful and tender moments. Alex Leonshartsberger, strung upside-down in a harness, was tormented by Sarah Foster-Sproull taking callous delight in her freedom. Once released, Leonshartsberger attempted reconciliation in a vivid, exciting duet.
Also in Prime Cuts was Tragic Best, choreographed by Foster-Sproull, and performed by NZ School of Dance students. A hilarious jumble of oddball characters struggled for centre stage. A bossy team leader and wacky sidekicks visited their one-upmanship on an unsuspecting ensemble of wannabes in 1920s beachwear. Highly entertaining, it had the comic timing of silent movie slapstick.
The full-length work body / fight / time, by Malia Johnston and Emma Willis, was powerful and combustive, exploring multiple metaphors for being, the nature of identity, vulnerability and belonging. Nine dancers leapt, twisted and locked onto each other in dynamic exchanges, playing word games with cue cards. An inspired music score by Eden Mulholland added to the depth of the work.
Girl with a Movie Camera, a dance/theatre/video work choreographed by Jennifer Nikolai, explored contrasting realities of the human eye and video. The camera’s ability to rework fleeting images and the human eye’s reassuring clarity were juxtaposed. Six dancers interpreted Andrew Denton’s compelling film/video montage, inspired by 1920s’ experimental film-maker Dziga Vertov.
Alexa Wilson’s Weg: A-Way traversed emotionally charged, forceful dance, a personal testimony of two years in Berlin and colourful, engaging “workshop” sessions with the audience. In a way that was part catharsis, part affirmation, Wilson used her naked body as the medium for exploring ideas on exploitation and capitalism.
TEMPO DANCE FESTIVAL, Q Theatre, Auckland, September 30-October 8.