July 10, 2012

Prestigious International opportunity for major New Zealand Contemporary Dance Work  

Douglas Wright Dance: rapt   

Pre-eminent New Zealand choreographer and award-winning writer Douglas Wright’s work rapt is set to be performed in The Hague at the prestigious Lucent Danstheater in April 2013.

Douglas Wright Dance is initiating a fundraising drive to raise $35k NZD to realise the project. 

The invitation has come from one of the world’s largest dance festivals, Holland Dance in conjunction with the programming arm of Lucent Danstheater, home to the world famous Netherlands Dance Theatre. It is unique for a New Zealand dance company to achieve the chance to perform on this prominent dance stage. The invitation represents a rare opportunity to showcase the work of New Zealand’s most iconic and revered dance theatre artist. It has been 17 years since Wright’s seminal work Forever, toured Europe to widespread critical and audience acclaim.

“We are thrilled to bring Douglas Wright back after many years to the dancing capital of The Netherlands, The Hague. rapt is a remarkable piece and strikingly different from anything our audiences are used to seeing in our part of the world. A true (re)discovery of a great artist in dance”.- Samuel Wuersten, Artistic Director Holland Dance and international programming at Lucent Danstheater, Den Haag.

A special crowd-funding initiative will go live this Thursday 12 July in order help raise funds to cover a short-fall on the Holland tour costs for rapt. The project has received major funding support from Creative New Zealand through its International Presentation Fund. However, the challenging economic environment and significant size and scale of rapt means that the total cost of the remount rehearsal period and tour cannot be covered by performance fees and Creative New Zealand funding alone.

Douglas Wright enjoys support throughout New Zealand and the world and the new crowd-funding pathway provides an excellent way to reach this support base and ask for help.

rapt was commissioned by the Auckland Arts Festival and premiered at The Civic during the 2011 Festival. [See reviews.]

The presentation of rapt in The Hague next April, provides a critical opportunity for further international market development for Wright and New Zealand’s very best contemporary performing arts work. A co-ordinated effort will be implemented to ensure as many key northern-hemisphere presenters as possible attend the performances in Holland. It is very hard for New Zealand artists to sustain their work by operating only within the New Zealand market. It is just too small. 

“Influential presenters of Avant-Garde dance who are unlikely ever to see rapt performed in New Zealand, will be invited to our Holland performances. This may in turn lead to future international tours of rapt and other dances that are as yet unborn.” – Douglas Wright

People can donate from as little as $10 by visiting http://www.pozible.com/rapt. A number of donation tiers with specially designed acknowledgement benefits have been created as a means to say thank-you to supporters. These include personally signed Douglas Wright books through to an opportunity to attend a rehearsal of rapt in Auckland before the company departs for Holland. 

For further enquiries please contact:
Phil Evans – Jumpboard Productions – phil@jumpboard.co.nz – 022 649 2286