High Jinx, once part of the Performing Arts School of New Zealand is now under the auspices of TAPAC’s Performing Arts programme. It is a relief to be back in the TAPAC Theatre, so ably managed by Margaret Mary Hollins, and see her in the audience as witness to the latest HighJinx Youth Company production. In times of radical change it is such a relief to see that the gifted High Jinx Youth Circus Arts directors are still at their helm.
Carlene Newall and Eve Gordon bring to the youthful circus arts shows a wide range of artistic references and skills bases. As a duo of Artistic Directors they artfully interweave circus contortion, contemporary dance, narrative and theatrics with intelligent music, light and sound choices. In doing this they provide the young company with multiple opportunities to express adolescence through the challenging modes of aerial display. From the opening section with the whole cast, to music by Crystal Castles Vs Health, to a last glimpse of group cohesion in Signing up, in, out, music by The Postal Service, both choreographed by Carlene, I felt pushed, delighted, teary, happy and amazed.
Fingerprints, as a programme, moves like a shared diary between solos and group work; at times performers are simply support to delicate solos and at others, collaborators in displays of circus arts extreme. They all obviously respond to connections of sharing and safety that are to be made between strong female minds and bodies, and circus display. In a pick and mix selection of costumes, personal colours and choices highlights their outspoken candour. Although in keeping with the requisite sensuality of black fishnets for trapeze, in all of the works the performers’ ingenuousness shines through.
A sense of the importance of place is instigated in a work inspired by the first soloist’s movement rendition. Sophia Nouchi adapts movement to Whirimako Black’s wonderful “Kimihia Rangahaua”. A strong feel for where the show is made becomes a theme revisited in the sweet solo to music by Lana Del Rey from Maisie Lewis, titled, Maisie, and everything in between. I break from reviewing the works in order here to make my point! Although sixth in order, the live sound of a loving grandmother, Marvynne Ann Harriet-Walker reading Maisie a letter while she performs reminds me of New Zealand’s earlier versions of the social norm for family.
Victoria Court’s trapeze work, She felt so much more than they knew, is a self-devised reflection on trapeze. The jumble of memories from a parents divorce is cleverly represented through odd movements, tempo, timing and flustered action, unusual to the circus art form. A well-known tune, “Against All Odds -Take a Look at Me Now”, again by The Postal Service interestingly sets the scene for a familiar story for today’s teenagers.
Eve Gordon has a particularly perceptive view on how to make performers in a black box theatre tell stories.In both Self-ish, a choreographed group work to music by Crystal Castles and with performers Quinn Vale, Ella Edward, Hazel Watson-Smith and Maisie Nash, and Look but do they see, a work on trapeze with Maisie Lewis, Sarah Letford and Victoria Court to music by the Glitch Mob, explorations into the experience of disconnectedness and disengagement through social media are incorporated. The idea of snapping the instance is clearly a narrative, and representations of the performers’ reality. Fragments of adolescence as movement ideas are central to the unravelling plot.
In Their differences were the same. Rachel McClennan and Sarah Letford use climbing and falling motifs in two purple-lit aerial silks to explore isolation-inside-sameness to a lullaby by Sia. A brave, bendy movement sketch with a chair is a difficult performance accomplishment at any level of performance experience. Quinn Vale ably demonstrates both quality and a provocative thoughtfulness in Sketching, shading, outlining, and defining to music by Armand Amar. Within an alternative way of thinking about relief, the solemnity of concentration in the performers’ faces was decreased and this time etched in light in a group silks work by Eve Gordon. I can see circus arts skills mastery, of detailed holds and weight sharing in, Is this what we are to each other?
Live music with Joanna Pinto on cello and original music by Andrew Perkins accompanies Hazel Watson-Smith tossing scores of paper across the floor and moving with unusually light movement extensions. The notes to her bow is not only a title for the work but reference to her riveting, performance diversity. In a final solo Ella Edwards falls on silks. In a work to music by CocoRosie and called The courage to fall, I equate adolescents facing fears with the way this young and highly skilled performer equates with the display of courage to fall safely from inside the silk.
Fingerprints is an important reflection of the need to support youth companies. The combined works for this show are an inspiration for young women to look more deeply at themselves and their enactment of a new generation. It is an extraordinary feat to make theatre work that fully understands the haziness and fragility of girls growing up and Fingerprints succeeds. Not only does the work show the courage of their explorations, the depth of their mentors, it also shows that the theatre is a perfect place to be.
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