There was a joke when I was a kid ‘why are Bedouins serious?’ Answer ‘because they do everything in tents.’

Get it? In tents = intense.

I stopped finding this amusing when I was about ten.

As a tween I was a fan of the British radio panel game My Word!broadcast on the BBC Home Service initially from 1956 to 1967. Panellists Frank Muir and Denis Norden were invited to explain the origin of a common phrase wittily, in the form of a feghoot. I was often hysterical as a result of their madcap genius. One of the best concerned a struggling sports shop looking for gimmicks to improve sales who decided to promote cheap camping equipment with the phrase ‘now is the winter of our discount tents.’

I’ve always loved that – but enough tent jokes, back to the serious work of reviewing Alexa R Wilson’s Tempo Dance festival offering IN/TENSE.

Alexa Wilson is an interdisciplinary performance, video, and text artist whose work I first experienced here in Tamaki Makaurau in the early 21^st century. She impressed then as a passionate, innovative, experimental dance artist driven by social issues. Today, her work is refined, uncompromising, articulate and remains anchored in new social issues – climate change, the genocide in Gaza, homelessness, personal responsibility, and our unique vulnerability.

Through the intervening years, Wilson tells us, she ‘founded and produced Experimental Dance Week Aotearoa in 2019, curated Morni Hills Performance Residency in India, created work for Footnote NZ Dance and Touch Compass, and danced for choreographers such as Douglas Wright, Malia Johnston, Lisa Densem, and Anna Bate.’ 

A graduate of the University of Auckland for whom martial arts paved a way towards dance school, Wilson also works internationally as a body therapist.

Currently resident in New York, Wilson admits to a love affair with The Big Apple which, she says, is ‘a thriving performance art city where there are continuous opportunities for her in dance and live art settings’ which support her own sassiness and passion.

I wrote the last bit.

The Tempo website, in promoting IN/TENSE asks us, ‘in a world racing forward, where is the heart inside what home? Where is the home inside what heart?’ These are esoteric questions and dig much deeper than a superficial discussion about homelessness or climate change in a bar, and Wilson confronts us with them physically, aurally, and visually. She shies away from nothing and meets us head on.

IN/TENSE, we are told, ‘delves into the themes of disparity, homelessness, and displacement, challenging how contemporary Western society distances itself from vulnerability by ‘othering’ others.’

It does that, big time! As someone regularly ‘othered’, this felt frighteningly real, real in a way that artists, especially artists like Wilson, truly understand. ‘Othering’ impacts everything we do, from how we are publicly perceived right to the heart of the funding cycle. Funders only need the sniff of difference to promulgate the ‘sorry, not this time’ letter.

IN/TENSE explores ‘fear and vulnerability not as weaknesses, but as powerful, generative forces that connect us and Wilson’s performance ‘weaves together movement, sound, performance art, text, music, and video to create an embodied reflection on these questions, inspired by the idea of ‘walking each other home.’

It’s fabulous concept that unites her audience, well, most of us anyway.

IN/TENSE isn’t a new work, it has history. I find it fascinating, so I’ll share it with you. Anyone who knows NYC will get the vibe: it was originally developed as a 25-minute piece for Grace Exhibition Space in NYC, where it captivated audiences at one of the city’s premier performance art venues. After which, it was presented as a full-length premiere at the inaugural Pōneke Festival of Contemporary Dance, and, here’s the kicker, the work continues to evolve in collaboration with DotDot Social, a virtual company, and this performance is inextricably linked to DotDot Social.

It’s a pure genius invention.

IN/TENSE come in four unique parts woven seamlessly together. The first contains the most movement, it’s a dance show after all, with impressive lighting, dramatic music, and a recognisable narrative. Much of it is scarily real and Wilson pulls out all the stops. Alcoholism features in a way that, from the front row, left nothing to the imagination.

Part Two is sheer genius. It features an interview with AI as a satirical panel. Siri features, Alexa (the AI version) is especially effective, and ChatGPT connects us with … I’m not quite sure what. Wilson asks the questions and the array of electronica answer: ‘how many are dead in Gaza?’ Alexa names a website and tells us ‘43,000’. ‘How many displaced?’ Another website and ‘1.9 million’. How many homeless in each of a range of countries, and Aotearoa comes off poorly. Sadly, electronic Alexa didn’t have much to say about Capitalism. All the same, it’s a splendid concept that allows the performer to both talk to the technology and to break the fourth wall which Wilson does impressively.

Part Three weaves in a video presentation by DotDot Social from NYC. It’s effective, ugly in content, deeply affecting. Again, this allows the performer to control the narrative, to hit us with it, without forcing us to hold her directly and immediately responsible.

We’re told that the final section is interactive ‘for those who are up for it. We’re not really, we’ve got the messages, we’re onside, we’re satisfied with our 60 minutes, and we leave in an orderly fashion.

Both Alexa’s would expect nothing less.

Wilson’s work has a layering of ideas that activate unique and individual experiences in each of us (I’m not the first to say this), allowing us to have genuine feelings and thoughts without ever being told what to think. There are playful, funny, and bizarre moments that help us to connect. The messaging is strong and clear, and Wilson is always in absolute control of her content.

I enjoyed IN/TENSE very much – and not because its overt politics support my own, well not only for that reason. Maybe a little.

Wilson calls her method ‘hybrid practice’ and places it on the periphery of improvisation and interactivity. It works and is an effective and natural evolution of her work from those early days. Wilson says, ‘Tempo is a great lift to the morale of the dance community.’ These aren’t just weasel words to please the boss, they’re very, very true. The festival is an eclectic selection of works with wide appeal and many different audiences. It’s not over yet, but I believe it can already be considered a substantial success.

In conclusion, IN/TENSE morphs into ‘thanks and good night’ in a way that is most pleasing.

I was concerned to note on Wilson ‘s Facebook page that they had been an issue with an audience member on the previous night. I’ve had similar experiences, and, in retrospect, they often border on farce. They’re also incredibly frightening, because unlike social media, these people have direct access to us and can do harm if it suits them. It was gratifying to know that the Q Theatre staff were on hand, supported Wilson, and enabled her enraged attacker to be escorted from the theatre.

Was IN/TENSE the feminist critique of capitalism it set out to be? Yes, it was, and within the bounds of safety, long may the theatre experience wind people up and make them think as Alexa R Wilson has been doing for all of her career.

More strength to her arm.

Footnote: ‘A feghoot (also known as a story pun or poetic story joke) is a humorous short story or vignette ending in a pun (typically a play on a well-known phrase), where the story contains sufficient context to recognize the punning humour.’

There, now you know.

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