Short + Sweet Dance - Wildcards 2013
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland
01/06/2013 - 01/06/2013
Production Details
WILD CARDS 2013
The Blind leading the Blind
Choreographed by Joanne Hobern
Performed by Georgina Bond, Skye Hurst and Jenny Postles.
Music: Taliska by Alight
A helpful demonstration on how to watch people moving in a lit space.
Same Love
Choreographer: Brigitte Knight
Dancers: the friday company – Danielle Anderson, Tamzin Naicker
Music: Same Love, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, feat. Mary Lambert
“And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to”
Moving through New York
Choreographer: Julie Anterrieu
Dancers: Catherine de Vos, Julie Anterrieu, Karen Rodriguez, Navin Nair and Pamela Mondeca salinas
Moving Through New York brings to the stage the ecectic spirit of nYC all linked by the subway system.
Mitera (Greek: ‘Mother’)
Choreographer – Jennifer De Leon
Dancers: Jennifer de Leon, Kosta Bogoievski
Music – Elizabeth Drake
Mother to son: I give you my support, my strength. Go now –
The sound of ‘music’
Choreographed by Lydia Rasmussen
Dancers: Lauren Hubbard, Holly Parkes, Vicky Wong, Alana Sherman, Natalie Sherman, Ruby Wallace, Shoshana Horselenberg, Veronika Hunter, Lara Mackenzie + Monique O’Meeghan
Soundtrack by Jake Nana
The sound of ‘music’, is choreographed by Lydia Rasmussen as part of her post-graduate dance studies at the University of Auckland.
There was a time
Choreographed by Amelia Grey
Danced by Casey Reid, Monique Westerdaal + Tori Manley
Music:- Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Psychological and physical loss of things both large and small, people, objects or parts. We are what is left behind.
Wing$
Choreographed by Carlene Newall with Wasabi Dance Crew
Dancers: Wasabi Dance Crew (Maddie Holland, Maddy Allen, Georgia Menhennet, Laurie Mitchell and Holly MacLeod)
Music: Wing$ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
This piece reflects the themes within the song; exploring the cost of image in a culture that is defined by exclusive sneaker collections and expensive branded apparel.
“They told me to Just Do It, I listened to what that swoosh said”
Transitional Space
Choreographer/Dancer/filmaker: Georgia Giesen
Woman’s World
Choreographed by Candice Frankland
Danced by Phioenix Bellydance – Candice Frankland, Astra Burrowes, Sophie Kaulima-Irvine, Lynette Marchant, Grainne McAnnalley, Lisa Lawford, Reneesha Naidoo + Suei Lin
Music: Medusa’s Fury by Paul Dinletir; El Leilah Di by Amr Diab; Man’s World by Natasha Atlas; Whip My Hair by Willow; and Drum Finale
Woman’s World is a display of the drama, sincerity, sensuality, and silliness of the women we are, and a dedication to all the women we know and love.
120 mins approx
Extremely variegated Wildcards
Review by Raewyn Whyte 02nd Jun 2013
A sizeable audience awaits the Wildcards show at this year’s Short+Sweet dance, unsure of quite what they will be seeing. As it turns out, at least four of the dances are in this show purely because those responsible missed getting required material in on time, so couldn’t be programmed into the shows where they get to perform five times instead of just once. So this is their one shot to get to the gala final, and only two will go through.
The programme is extremely variegated, with works from fledgling choreographers and emerging artists alongside works from choreographers of considerable experience, and casts with similar levels of expertise.
It opens with Joanne Hobern’s The Blind Leading The Blind, a frivolous send up of airline flight preparation sequencing, danced in neon bright colours by Georgina Bond, Skye Hurst and Jenny Postles, with individual phrasing alternating with trio work, and audience interaction at key moments. Next up, in contrasting style and focus, Brigette Knight’s Same Love is well-rehearsed, jazzy vocabulary danced mostly in unison smoothness by Danielle Anderson and Tamzin Naicker to the Same Love rap by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, though it’s hard to see how the dancing relates to the music’s themes of the universal value of love and the need to end homophobia.
Julie Anterrieu’s sextet Moving Through New York is next, alternating subway car strap-hanging with bursts of duet and quartet jazzy Broadway styles vocabulary set against a medley of NYC themed tunes: Brooklyn’s On Fire, Theme from NY,NY, Flickering Lights Reprise, and Yeah New York.
Jennifer De Leon’s duet Mitera (Greek for Mother) is adagio paced, with repetition of symbolically structured interlaced swirling floorwork, choreographed to music by Elizabeth Drake. Danced with fine control by de Leon and UNITEC student Kosta Bogoievski, this makes much of their evident age difference to add poignancy to their programme note – Mother to son: I give you my support, my strength. Go now … This is followed by Lydia Rasmussen’s The Sound of Music, made as part of her postgraduate dance studies at the University of Auckland, set to music by Jake Nana. It opens with whistled motifs from that well-known anthem, and in amongst the many busy crossings of the floor her 10 performers replay iconic moments from the film.
Amelia Grey’s There was a Time is thematically the heavyweight for this programme, dealing with the residue of psychological loss that stays in the body and goes on shaping human interactions for some time. It is impressively performed with gravitas by her trio of Casey Reid, Monique Westerdaal and Tori Manley to music by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and is definitely much appreciated by the audience.
In Wing$, Carlene Newall and Wasabi Dance Crew engagingly explore the impact of branding elements on those who wear expensive sneakers, with the crew of five young dancers making the most of doing “what that Swoosh says” as they echo the moves suggested in the Wing$ rap by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. More delighted applause.
The final two works are more sophisticated in choreographic terms, and both take account of the particular spatial limits of the Herald Theatre very well. Both get whistles and whoops from the crowd.
Georgia Giesen’s Transitional Space brings black and white film of herself and her live but shadowy presence into the same frame, with the live dancing moving towards and away from the screen, and exploring contrasting dynamics and mood to the edited footage being projected. With music as an underlay – Vessel by Jon Hopkins, Stay by Henry Krinkle & Lykke Li by I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix) – she moves your attention to and fro between the filmed image and the live person, bringing them together and splitting them apart, culminating in a sequence of vivacious live dancing which cuts loose and makes the living dancing body fully present in ways the filmed body can never be.
And for the finale, Phoenix Belly Dance with Woman’s World – a series of smoothly danced vignettes celebrating women’s “drama, sincerity, sensuality and silliness,” each with the focus on particular parts of the body – the undulating belly, swivelling hips, shimmying breasts, floating and flicking hair. This opens on the floor, set back just enough that even up the top of the seating you can see choreographer Candice Frankland ‘s undulating torso as she lies flat on the floor, surrounded by the extended silken “wings” which the other seven dancers deploy to frame her movement, both as she lies and as all eight come to stand before settting the silks aside for the next section.
Two works will go through – one from the audience votes, and one from the judges votes. It is notable that two of the audience favourites and eventual award winners from 2012 – Phoenix Belly Dance and Wasabi Dance Crew – were both on this particular programme.
—-NB From Wild Card Georgia Giesen was picked for the Judge’s Vote, and Wasabi Dance Crew and the Amelions/Amelia Grey were tied for the Audience Vote so S+S put all three through!
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments
Hello Douche Canoe have you had some fun June 26th, 2013
Hello douche, I mean Barbara... not in on the joke?
As stated above I don't claim an ability to write, nor be anything other than grammar literate. But to be abusive towards a performer in a review shows just what sort of a person you are. I'm not defending the performance (how could I, I didn’t even see it) ... I've seen many arty dances in my time, in fact I've even reviewed them. Do not assume to know who you talk to.
You just made yourself look worse than I could ever
I'm laughing... ROFL is the correct term. So…
Come back at me with your abuse. You’re no better than the person I was commenting on.
This time I used grammar and spell check, just to give you a thrill. The other time I couldn’t be bothered because the person I was commenting about came across as repulsive and pretentious as you do.
By the way... I was quoting the performer Prince from this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_0K4cieh9Y
Are there any other ways you can show that you're ageing into irrelevancy
Barbara Brebner June 24th, 2013
Hey, Prince,
talking about getting personal? Really? Your comments are nothing but a personal attack. They are not welcome here and go against any netiquette.
Talking about grammar? Would you like me to comment about your grammar. Oh, wait, where do I start? First of all, can you spell? :) Obviously not. But let's leave this, it's besides the point.
I saw the Georginas performance you're defending, and I agree that it was disrespectful to the audience. And disrespectful to other dancers. It came across as lacking good taste. Yes, really! This stood out so much, every other aspect of the performance faded. Maybe I'm old fashioned? Nah! I've been exposed to too much good dance and performance art to know better.
Regards!
Hellojohny June 11th, 2013
Oh Roberta, I see you have come back and edited your little missive... at least the grammar is better, though I can't claim to be terribly good at it myself. However you have still made assumptions about the character of the performer and that makes you the vulgar one. Do you know this person you are commenting about because the only one that is being disrespectful is yourself. You have barely described the work or put it in context. I really hope you are not a reviewer at this site because good critics critique the show, not make assumptions about a performers personality or way of being. What is happening in front of you is a performance, which more than likely has nothing to do with the crap you spouted above.... I give you and f for fail at your terrible reviewing. Perhaps you're professional jealousy was getting in the way of watching experimentation. The arts need to be disrespectful to stay current and alive then we would never have artists, just copyists that stay within a ridiculous norm just because one member of the audience had a petty grudge to bitch about. Perhaps you should immerse yourself in culture that challenges you and release yourself from your very limited world view, which is apparent from your terrible personal attack above. "Act your age not your shoe size"- Prince
hellojonny June 10th, 2013
The above comment is a little personal and on the nose... perhaps you could comment about the work and not the person performing it. What you have done is not review the work, you have condemned the individual and I find that outright appalling Roberta... it's interesting what a google search will turn up... you’re not as anonymous as you think... especially if you use the same nom de web everywhere.
Roberta June 7th, 2013
I found Wild Card show monotonoes. I thought that it might get wild and experimental, but didn't expect to look it like a teenage after school show. It was too long and got sour.
Only two shows stood out: duet of Jenny De Leon and Kosta Bogoievski and Amelia Grey trio. Being a fan of Pina Bausch I couldn't not notice Jenny's dance. In 10 minutes she and Kosta tells us a story about lifetime relationships between mother and son. It's expressed with grace and delicacy. It's filled with deep emotion. Amelia's choreagraphed piece was telling us the different story from the past, but as professionally danced.
The third show that captured my attention was Georgia's performance. Well in the bad way. Had the Judge seen other performances before he/she gave the vote?
Goergia was the most "wild" from all the performers. I found her act the most offensive, vulgar and disrespecful. She sat right next to us on the stairs and drank wine in the middle of her piece. It felt that she didn't know how to fill these 10 minutes. She tried to compensate it with the video work. Unfortunately it didn't save her. Even opposite it made it more monotonous. After the first minute you start to ask what is all about. But the most offensive was that she didn't even try to put an effort to perform. It felt like she stepped on to the stage between her grocery shopping, got drunk and did some "harlem shakes" because now it's cool to do so. She looked drunk and vulgar. Like the after party girl on the Queen street on early Saturday morning.
I really don't understand what kind of dance performers Short and Sweet is trying to attract. Judges are giving Vote for somebody who even doesn't try to put an effort into dancing or even performing. At the same tome ignoring professional performances of Jenny De Leon, Kosta Bogoievski or The Amelions.