By Rain Francis.

A company of eight dancers from Unitec in Auckland travels to Italy this month. They will be performing in The Juniper Passion, New Zealand’s first ANZAC opera. Composed by Michael Williams with libretto by John Davies, The Juniper Passion is set both at the battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, and in 1960 at the graveyard near the battle site where 343 New Zealanders are buried.

The dancers perform extended sequences portraying battle, the death of the protagonist and a series of duets and solos that sees each character embodied by a dancer and a singer. The company is a combination of graduates and current students and they have made a significant contribution to the choreography. The season opens at Teatro Roma, an ancient Roman amphitheatre on the slopes of the mountain where the battle took place, with four subsequent performances in and around Rome.

You can watch a live streaming and view more of the company’s activities on thejuniperpassion.webs.com.

Natalie Hona in Java Dance Company’s ‘Back of the Bus’. Photo by Mikel Taylor

Java Dance Company will be performing their acclaimed work Back of the Bus at the Mackay Festival of Art in Queensland next month. The cast comprises New Zealand School of Dance graduates Lauren Carr, Natalie Hona, Liz Walker and Artistic Director Sacha Copland. Fresh from sell-out seasons at the Wellington International Arts Festival and as one of the top 10 reviewed shows at the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2012, Back of the Bus will take audience members on an unforgettable bus trip through the streets of Mackay. For more information or to book, head to www.mackayecc.com.au/mackay_festivals.

Barbara Snook and Rosemary Martin

Barbara Snook and Rosemary Martin are the first Auckland University students to complete PhDs majoring in Dance Studies. Both women work at the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries – Barbara as a Professional Teaching Fellow for the Dance Studies programme, and Rosemary as a Dance Studies Post Graduate Advisor and Lecturer.

Barbara originally taught dance for high school students and was the Caroline Plummer Fellow in community dance at the University of Otago in 2008. She is now looking forward to research and a lot of teaching, which she “just loves”. Her thesis explores the meanings and contexts informing the delivery of dance in New Zealand classrooms.

Rosemary Martin’s thesis is about international education in dance and follows the personal narratives of seven women from the southern Mediterranean region. Rosemary retired from a professional ballet career with The Royal New Zealand Ballet to pursue academic life. She travelled to the Middle East to do her PhD research and to get outside of her comfort zone. You can read more about Rosemary’s story here: www.creative.auckland.ac.nz.

Ursula Robb of New Zealand Dance Company.

The New Zealand Dance Company has three dates left on its North Island tour of Language of Living. The company will perform in Orewa (June 4), Hawkes Bay (June 7) and Wellington (June 12). Artistic Director Shona McCullagh says that “a highlight is Ursula Robb’s performance of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s solo excerpt of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune from the full length work D’un soir un jour’ by Rosas (2006).” For more information, check out www.nzdc.org.nz.

Atamira Dance Company’s KAHA 2013 programme is presented this month in partnership with the Central North Island Arts Consortium in Hawkes Bay (June 13), New Plymouth (June 16) and Hamilton (June 19). The company will then embark on a US tour in July and August, performing in Hawaii, San Francisco and at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. Upon their return to New Zealand, Atamira will rejoin the New Zealand festival circuit with KAHA in October.

Okareka Dance Company combines dance, theatre, music and waiata (song) to premiere the highly anticipated K’Rd Strip, playing from June 12 as part of the NZ Matariki Season. The work is Okareka’s response to an Auckland landmark that has anchored its deep roots into the veins of New Zealand history, both culturally and counter-culturally. It is a work that is unlike anything Okareka have created before; pole dancing, drag queens, haka, contemporary dance and dramatic scenes entwined with live vocals of an all-New Zealand music score from the likes of Gin Wigmore, Mi Sex, Annie Crummer and Th’Dudes.

The work also marks the debut of Okareka’s Matariki under the Stars tour, which will feature an annual performance from the group every year during this time-honoured tradition as part of the Maori calendar.

K’Rd Strip tours NZ from June 11 to July 13. Visit www.okareka.com for ticketing, venue and further information regarding this event.

Royal New Zealand Ballet presents ‘Swan Lake’. Photo by Ross Brown

In celebration of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 60th birthday, Russell Kerr’s beloved production of Swan Lake will be taken on an eight-centre national tour, starting next month.

When it premiered at the St James Theatre in Wellington in 1996, the choreographer and former Artistic Director’s opulent production received critical acclaim and had audience members on their feet applauding.

Russell Kerr ONZM QSM is humbled to see his work showcased this year. “This 60th anniversary offers The Royal New Zealand Ballet and the country the opportunity to mark the occasion with performances of the company’s own production of Swan Lake and also offers dancers and choreographers the opportunity to relive the art that passes between them: the act of giving and receiving,” he says.

Complementing Kerr’s impeccable choreography are extravagant costumes and spectacular sets designed by the late Kristian Fredrikson, often described as a genius, who went on to become one of Australasia’s most experienced and sought-after designers. Fredrikson worked alongside Kerr and the RNZB for many years designing costumes and sets in his signature elaborate and richly-textured style.

The Vodafone Season of Swan Lake runs from July 18 to September 1. For more information, visit www.nzballet.org.nz.

Photo (top): Unitec dancers peform The Juniper Passion.

Interview with Alexandra Knox and her mother Jennifer Barry Knox.

By Jo McDonald.

It was 1964 on a Sunday afternoon. Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Barry was at a ballet rehearsal when a tall woman with a ponytail came into the studio. She was introduced to the group, and then asked them to take their shoes off and sit on the floor. Some of the dancers were horrified, but for Jennifer, this was a life changing moment that set her on a path to become a pioneer of modern dance in Australia. The woman with the ponytail was Elizabeth Dalman, and Jennifer was one of a group of young dancers who began taking class with Elizabeth. On 10 June 1965, this group of young dancers lead by Dalman became officially known as Australian Dance Theatre (ADT).

Back in the early sixties, there was no contemporary dance in Australia – or modern as it was known then. This changed when Elizabeth Dalman returned to Australia after working in Europe with choreographers like Eleo Pomare, a Columbian-American choreographer. The experiences Dalman brought home with her were to ignite a passion for modern dance in the hearts of young ballet students like Jennifer, who now had the opportunity to learn the techniques of the modern dance greats, such as Martha Graham, Jose Limon and Lester Horton.

Now, almost 50 years later, Jennifer’s daughter, Alexandra, is also immersed in the world of professional dance. But she finds herself in a very different world than that of 15-year-old Jennifer.

Based in Adelaide, after moving from Melbourne a couple of years ago, Alexandra is fresh from the premiere season of her first full-length work Cor during the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Cor was made possible thanks to a $15,000 Choreolab residency, an incubator program for emerging choreographers run by Ausdance SA. The Choreolab Residency program was funded through a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.

Photo by Chris Herzfeld.

Alexandra is one of many young, passionate independent dance artists based in Adelaide, who aren’t just looking for work, but are creating their own work. The environment in Adelaide is conducive to the rise of the independent artist, with the Arts SA Independent Makers & Presenters grant programs and Ausdance SA’s strong focus on supporting independent artists through Choreolab, which provides freelance class programs, cheap rehearsal space, grant auspicing and advice. SA independent choreographers can also benefit from the Managing and Producing Services (MAPS) program of the Australia Council, which sees Insite Arts appointed to produce and manage new dance works so they can create, present and tour their work. Other Australian high-profile choreographers that call Adelaide home are Leigh Warren, Larissa McGowan, Katrina Lazaroff and Gabrielle Nankivell.

Back in the days of Jennifer’s early dance career, there were no arts grants. In fact, ADT didn’t receive its first grant (for $5,000) until 1971. The company had been surviving until then on fundraising, donations and Elizabeth’s private funds, yet had managed to tour extensively, including international tours to Europe, New Guinea, India and Thailand.

These days, dance artists looking to fund their own work need to be savvy grant writers. Alexandra has found the process of applying for grants to be quite useful, in helping her distil her ideas and find her own voice, although she is aware that for many dancers, writing grants is neither a pleasant or easy process, although some are quite good at it. This is perhaps due, in part, to their tertiary training. Jennifer notes that dancers these days are well educated, and this is something else that differs from her early experience, when there were no tertiary dance programs. Whereas now, there are tertiary dance programs at numerous institutions, such as AC Arts in Adelaide, the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), NAISDA[1] College, Deakin University, Macquarie University … the list goes on.

Alexandra herself is a graduate of the VCA. Fortunately, in the sixties, there was Elizabeth who brought her knowledge back from Europe. Ultimately, this meant that when Jennifer travelled to New York in 1968, she was able to walk into any class and hold her own. In one class, she recalls another dancer being mistaken for the ‘Australian girl’ because Jennifer was so well-versed in modern dance that she didn’t stand out from the American students as any less experienced.

So why is Alexandra following in her mother’s footsteps? Is it simply because she was exposed to so much dance, or is it in her genes?

‘Cor’ being performed at Adelaide Fringe Festival. Photo by Chris Herzfeld.

Jennifer recalls being 4 years old when she made the decision to become a dancer. In those days, choosing to be a professional dancer was very unusual, and she found herself ridiculed at school for her choice. But at home, her mother was very supportive and encouraged her to fulfil her dreams. She was adopted, so she doesn’t know if her biological parents were artistic, but she does know she was the first person in her adopted family who had any interest in the arts. So it seems that for Jennifer at least, dancing is in her blood.

Jennifer also recalls Alexandra as a one-year old child sitting in her chair, wiggling her bottom in time to the music, and thinking to herself, “Aha, I have a dancer.” It’s harder to tell if Alexandra’s passion is nature or nurture – probably both. Apparently she was always dancing as a child, improvising mostly, and Jennifer and Alexandra would dance and improvise together every night. The first work that Alexandra presented in Adelaide was a fully improvised work, Wyrd With Grace, which she first presented at the 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival, then the October 2011 Choreolab, and again at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2012.

Alexandra had her first professional gig at the age of 6, dancing with her mother in Meryl Tankard’s Corte a Flora, presented for Floriade in Canberra. Jennifer had never imagined that she would be dancing at age 43 with her daughter in the same production. Alexandra was a pincushion and Jennifer a flower. This experience exposed Alexandra to the world of professional dance and one of Australia’s great choreographers, but also gave her the chance to work with some of Australia’s best contemporary dancers, including Tuula Roppola, Paige Gordon and Michelle Ryan. Alexandra describes the experience as “overwhelming, like an oversize dream coming to life”, but she was inspired by these amazing women who had a great acting ability and dance training.

Both Jennifer and Alexandra have returned to Adelaide to be with their mother.  Jennifer has been a gypsy most of her life, and she wants to spend time with her mother, who is now 95.  After her adopted father passed away when she was ten, it was just Jennifer and her mother, so they are very close. Alexandra is also an only child, and has come to Adelaide to be close to her mother. Their close bond is obvious, and there is a great warmth and gentleness between them. They both share the same eyes – a clear and beautiful green – and an absolute necessity to dance.

Alexandra, on the brink of an exciting dance and choreographic career, is now in the midst of writing a grant application for a new work for Next Wave in Melbourne with AC Arts recent graduate Alicia Min Harvie, and she is working in June and July with Adelaide choreographer Katrina Lazaroff on her new work Wasted.

Jennifer is currently writing a book on her experience during her time with ADT, which also includes content based on interviews from other ADT dancers at the time.  It will be titled Dirty Feet, inspired by a comment Sir Robert Helpmann made to Jennifer at a party – he said that modern dancers were fat, they can’t do classical ballet, and they have dirty feet. Since then, Jennifer has always been careful to wash her feet before a performance. It is perhaps ironic that Alexandra worked with Sydney-based contemporary dance organisation DirtyFeet, which supports independent dance artists and promotes community engagement in the arts.

It will be ADT’s 50th anniversary in 2015, so it is timely that Jennifer is writing a book about the dancers’ perspective. Various events are in the pipeline for the anniversary celebration. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Alexandra dance in the 50th anniversary in a role created for her mother?

[1] NAISDA is the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association

Photo (top): Alexandra Knox and her mother Jennifer Barry Knox. Photo by Jo McDonald.

Petra Caroline Szabo is an emerging artist from the South Australian arts community. She is a young, aspiring dancer, singer, actress, writer and photographer who enjoys challenging herself and gaining insight into the arts community abroad.

In January 2012 Petra was awarded a sponsorship from Christian Dance Fellowship of Australia to venture to Sydney as an emerging performing artist/choreographer and present her first professional work in a dance showcase called Platform Shorts. This was the first development of a dance theatre work she has called Retroforward. It was a collaboration with a fellow dance student Alicia Min Harvie, National Coordinator of CDFA.

Petra’s second development involved a larger company of dancers, actors and live musicians and was a part of the Adelaide College of the Arts, BA in Dance Performance’s curriculum and the Adelaide Fringe Festival, 2012. It was performed as part of a showcase called Rip Drag Ruminate, which was a selection of dance works, each by the third year dancers of AC Arts. Industry leaders, such as Timothy Sexton from the State Opera of South Australia noted that “the choreography was very efficient” and that he “loved the use of live musicians”.

In the second half of this year Petra is planning to make Retroforward into a dance film, working with fellow AC Arts student Jessie Martinovic, from the visual arts department. Jessie, also a pianist, will be working with musicians Peter Tuske, Andras Tuske and Harry Covill. Working together, Harry Covill and Peter Tuske will produce the score.

Petra says that the style of the film has been “inspired by dance artists Pina Bausch and Tanja Liedtke, and visual artists Salvador Dali and Andy Goldsworthy. The movie 500 Days of Summer is also an inspiration.”

Petra’s film has already been invited by the Hungarian Arts Community to tour in each state of Australia. She also plans to send this video to rural communities throughout Australia to promote dance culture and to European and American arts festivals.

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance news, dance auditions & dance events.

By Rain Francis

Contemporary dance often has an aura of mystery about it. It’s not ballet, it’s not hip hop, and it seems to be different wherever you go. That’s one of the best things about it! Here Rain Francis talks to Sacha Copland, Artistic Director of New Zealand’s Java Dance Company, about the curious world of contemporary dance.

Java Dance Company was founded in 2003 by Sacha and fellow graduates of New Zealand School of Dance. It is based in Wellington but tours a lot around the country. Java’s mission is ‘to capture audiences with visceral, impressive dance that communicates’. This goal is realised by ‘creating and presenting original theatrical dance works built on dynamic physicality, character development and storytelling’.

Earlier this year, Java was at the Taranaki International Arts Festival performing two shows –  Back of the Bus and Pick a Path – a show created especially for children. Back of the Bus is a popular piece by the company. It has been presented all over New Zealand. It is performed on a moving bus that stops at different locations around the city it is in.

On this occasion, The Arts Festival organisers worked with a graffiti artist to paint the bus, and they spray-painted a cartoon of Java dancer Natalie Hona on the back of the bus. Natalie was stoked, saying “I haven’t been turned into a cartoon before!”

Sacha says this is something she loves about contemporary dance; it uses “such a wide variety of movement in lots of different contexts”. Java’s latest project was a show called RISE, where the performers made bread on stage, on a massive scale, with “an exploding wall of milk and honey, flour falling and water bursting from the ground”.

Sacha says of RISE, “It was the most holistically challenging project I’ve ever been a part of,  from working with volatile elements to collaborating with a composer to create a new 90 minute work integrating the live musicians, to addressing the question ‘what is universal’ while embedded in the bread-making process. I loved making RISE, working with a tactile space rather than a ‘clean’ surface. The cast were incredible and so willing to get amongst the mess.”

RISE had an international cast, epic design and all the fun of audience involvement. It required over 1000kgs of flour, a rock climbing wall that ran the length of the theatre, live singers and intense physicality. It explored how a community comes into existence and involved the dancers getting covered in flour, honey, water, and dough. The audience helped by kneading the bread, which was then baked.

Dancer Alana Sargent described the experience of working on such a unique show. “RISE for me was a massive learning curve and I enjoyed every second of it. I found myself in new and insane situations that pushed me and made me grow as an artist. It opened my mind to numerous possibilities creatively, and I was constantly learning. Dancing in physical elements of flour, water and golden syrup really challenged me as a performer. Never once did a show feel the same as the last. I believe this show will never stop evolving and improving. I am so pleased that I have had the opportunity to be part of the creative process of such an innovative show.”

OK, so far we have a dance performed in a moving vehicle, and a giant baking experiment. So, what exactly IS contemporary dance? The cool thing about it is everybody defines it differently, and there’s not really any right or wrong definition. Contemporary dance began as an answer to the stringent rules of classical ballet, and has evolved into something with virtually no boundaries. It is interpreted differently by everyone – performers and audience members alike.

Sacha defines contemporary dance as “an intensely physical way to express an idea. It uses influences from theatre, lots of different dance styles and visual art”. The only rule, she says, is that “it must keep changing as the world changes. It’s about exploring new ways to move.”

Because there are so few limitations, this style of dance can be really accessible to everyone, or it can be quite challenging. Sometimes people say they don’t understand it, but the thing to remember is, whatever a piece of art means to you, is what it means to you! This goes for dance, visual art, poetry and music. They’re all open to interpretation, and every interpretation is valid.

According to Sacha, the contemporary dance industry in NZ is reaching out to audiences and changing the perception that contemporary is mysterious and hard to understand. She says that Java has a “really theatrical style, so people can connect with the story as well as the physicality. Communicating through movement is the key.”

Java has a strong youth connection. They make shows specifically for teenagers and tour high schools nationally, performing as well as conducting dance and choreography workshops. In Term 2 next year they’ll be touring North Island schools with Survivor, a show that explores how basic instinct drives us all as we negotiate our place in the pecking order.

In February, Java will be heading off on its first international tour, to perform Back of the Bus at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. The company invites you to ride on a bus through the streets of Adelaide, as dancers propel themselves along the aisles and hang from the roof. What fun! Physical comedy, pure kinetic energy and outrageous scenarios will combine to create a magical mystery tour of the unexpected.

For more information, check out www.javadancecompany.co.nz and www.adelaidefringe.com.au.

This article was originally published in TEARAWAY Magazine – The Voice of New Zealand Youth. www.tearaway.co.nz