Short + Sweet Dance 2016 gala night presented a programme of works encapsulated within a contemporary/ hip hop genre.

Wonky, choreographed by Shani Dickins, opens with one corner of the stage covered in small cardboard box houses appearing as a tiny city. Dancer Rosa Strati with elongated arms and skeleton fingers enters, towering over this suburb/ city. This choreography makes a poignant statement about Auckland housing with an analogy to a giant bird swooping over the city scratching at it, unable to take possession of any houses and eventually causing destruction. This piece won the award for production design.  

Step by step, cleverly crafted by Leighton Rangi, opens to whispers while all dancers form a line, bent forward and giving us glimpses of individually contrasting coloured tartan shirts tied around their waists. One bright white hand-held light cleverly illuminates the action and at one point is accurately thrown between dancers. Performed with precision, the dancers change formations from circles to lines to groups, solos or duets, or combinations that provide for rich development of this piece. Pulsating movement signals a change to a more frenetic mood with movement being more hip hop in character. Dimly lit throughout, it certainly made the point that darkness is not all bad.  

Shroud, choreographed by Leah Carrell, begins with a light on a sewing machine while one dancer begins to sew strips of red fabric together.   This is a very strong commanding image, and draws the audience in to a centralised focus. A second dancer close by moves in complete contrast to the sewer and throughout the piece there is very little relationship between the two apart from the moments of connection through the fabric. The programme note captures an interesting concept in relation to the word shroud, which is only partially realised in this piece – which won the award for risk taking.

Obsess is sharply performed with great dramatic timing by the choreographer Elijah Kennar dancing with stand-out male performer awardee Villa Lemanu. The piece is action packed, funny and full of “boy” humour. With the foundation idea around the use of a spray bottle, which becomes the vehicle for some very amusing interplay between the two characters, sending up our human foibles around the obsession of consumerism. The dancers show their range of physical skills by romping through the space using physicality and dynamic variation effectively.  Elijah thoroughly deserved the Judges Choice  award as well as the Tempo Short + Sassy Award and the highly commended award for emerging talent.  

Show Your Colour choreographed by Stephen Hidalgo and IDCO dancers is a fast and sometimes frenetic hip hop piece. The piece is well performed and offers each individual a chance to show his or her qualities in the way solos have been incorporated effectively with in the whole.

Womb-men choreographed by Xavier Breed tackles domestic violence in Aotearoa. Thirteen strong female dancers dressed in beige petticoats dance not to find answers but to find voice and break the silence. Unison, one versus the group, solos, trio relationships and exits and entrances and a repeated stomach motif all serve this choreographer well with the controversial subject matter chosen. However this work is challenging for the dancers and at times the music seems to dominate and race on.

The Power of Resonance is set around quantum physics. The only light source is six small lights that hang from the arms of the dancer.  The lights trace wave and circling patterns on the floor or on her body depending on the dancer’s movement.  It was fascinating to imagine the shapes being made by the dancer and to fill in the picture as she speeds up and slows down. She hands over the power of what we see to the audience by giving away the six lights to individuals in the front row and they select what they light of the dancers movement. Unfortunately the sidelights were still on making this task less effective.  On collecting the lights she clusters all six of them on her front directly facing the audience and continues to dance. Choreographer / Dancer Grace Woollett was awarded innovative choreographer for this work.

Hip Hop Hysteria – Exploring Stereotypes was choreographed by Jazmine Cox – DreamCatchers Worldwide(DCW).The beginning caught my attention with the array of different costumes worn by the twelve dancers. Throughout the piece there was a mixtures of styles danced well but there did not seem to be any cohesion between sections or to the video projections, some of which were stunning.  The radical juxtaposition of some images was puzzling if not a little disturbing- burlesque with balaclavas.  The idea of identity needed to be fleshed out far more and perhaps “less would have been more” on this occasion.  

Dancer /choreographer Amelia Chong brought us Duality, a stunningself-choreographed solo. Sinuous and articulate movements coupled with powerful execution of transitions from one movement to the next make this a very engaging performance to watch. Her command of a range of movement vocabulary successfully explores a range of dualities.  This solo is beautiful and expressive with Amelia demanding our attention through her strong performance focus. She was awarded the standout female performer.

Tū I Luma wass the second work of the night choreographed by the very talented Xavier Breed who was awarded the DANZ emerging choreographer mentorship. This piece for eight dancers steps through a process of finding yourself, your uniqueness and cultural roots through a fusion of contemporary movement vocabulary. The second half is particularly strong, accompanied by beautiful Samoan singing.  Well performed and well crafted, this piece made an excellent last item to a varied night of dance for the Short and Sweet Gala 2016.

It was frustrating that once again no music was credited in the programme though it was available on the website. The gala evening fittingly finished with a full house of dancers, audience, friends and family  celebrating the different awards and acknowledging all those that had contributed to this Short and Sweet Dance gala.

Full list of awards: 

Judges’ Choice Award: Obsess, choreographed by Elijah Kennar
People’s Choice Award: WOMB-MEN, choreographed by Xavier Breed
The Wallace Arts Trust Outstanding Emerging Artist Award: Taitanyk Toniu
The Wallace Arts Trust Emerging Production Award: Hip Hop Hysteria – Exploring Stereotypes, choreographed by Jazmine Cox
The Wallace Arts Trust Highly Commended Award: Amelia Chong and Elijah Kennar
Tempo Short + Sassy Award by Tempo Dance Festival NZ: Elijah Kennar
Dance Aotearoa New Zealand Award: Xavier Breed
Standout Female Performer Award: Amelia Chong
Standout Male Performer Award: Villa Lemanu
Curator’s Choice Award: Kisha September
Innovative Choreography Award: The Power of Resonance, choreographed by Grace Woollett
Production Design Award: Wonky, choreographed by Shani Dickins 
Risk Taker Award: Shroud, choreographed by Leah Carell

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