The New Zealand Dance Company have created another evening of beautiful dance with the show Rua which consists of two seperate pieces.
IN TRANSIT – choreographer Louise Pōtiki Bryant
This piece begins slowly as a man walks on stage. His body is naked except for a pair of briefs. He walks slowly, balancing a long stick on his head. He turns on the spot and then sits down. Five dancers appear and begin to move together in sharp almost robotic fashion. The action and the music is frantic yet precise.
Other moments were more intimate such as during a quite lovely song, two men dance together in perfect fluidic harmony. Throughout there seemed to be themes of death and renewal, grief and togetherness.
Two other moments stand out. The first, almost funereal as the group enter holding long sticks while a man wearing a red robe watches on. A dancer is laid on the ground and the sticks are ‘planted’ on him. For me it represented the return of a beloved body to the whenua leading to renewed life in the form of a tree. The second was at the end of IN TRANSIT when another male dancer walked on stage with a stick on his head. Slowing walking and then crouching down as he moved, the other dances balanced other sticks on his shoulders, arms and legs. It was simply mesmerising.
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MATTER – choreographer Ross McCormack
Five tall poles were place at various locations of the stage. A woman stands by one seemingly enraptured by it. Suddenly a musical tone blares out and a group of crouching dancers walk in huddled together in what appears to be a single entity. They move in unison and make sudden shifts in direction. It is very hypnotic and very clever.
Later, the dancing became more free form yet still urgent, precise and compelling. The poles were disassembled and one dancer wore two long sections on his arms while intreating with the others. All throughout this piece there were innovative and quite remarkable elements that seemed to come thick and fast. In many ways MATTER had a dreamlike quality to it.
Combined into one show, IN TRANSIT and MATTER provided two striking explorations of relationships and imagination that were simply sumptuous and enabled these incredible dance performers to deliver a thought provoking and deeply satisfying experience.
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TEMPO DANCE FESTIVAL 2024
10-20 October 2024