From hip-hop to ballet, contemporary to haka, Aotearoa is making a name for itself in the world of dance. Take part in the Tempo Dance Festival to celebrate New Zealand dance in all its imaginative forms.
We've selected top 5 striking and inventive shows that you should see during this year's festival.
The Danz Season of Limbs@40
5 and 6 October at Q Theatre
Ground-breaking New Zealand modern dance company Limbs celebrate its founding by Chris Jannides in 1977. This re-embodying of some of their most iconic works features choreography developed for the Limbs repertoire by resident dancer/choreographers MaryJane O’Reilly (QSM), Douglas Wright (NZ Arts Laureate, MNZM) and Mark Baldwin (OBE, Artistic Director of the prestigious Rambert Dance Company in London).
Inferno
6 and 7 October at Q Theatre
After taking festival-goers hostage last year with their unapologetic activation in the Q Theatre Lounge, Coven, a performance activation collective from South Auckland, are back to set flames to the Vault with their interdisciplinary installation Inferno. Drawing inspiration from the 9 concentric circles of Dante’s Inferno as well as indigenous Pacific stories around fire, it will be an immersive, primal, hellish and hair-raising experience for the public to escape to.
Orchids
12 and 13 October at Q Theatre
A striking new choreography featuring seven distinct performers, Orchids is born from a fascination with the mythology that surrounds the orchid flower. Rich with compelling imagery and underpinned by Eden Mulholland’s evocative score, Orchids contemplates the conflict and catharsis of females at different stages of their lives – especially the significance of intergenerational relationships – seeking to unveil them in beautiful and mysterious ways.
A World, with Your Wound in It
14 and 15 October at Q Theatre
The cross-disciplinary solo dance-theatre work embodies the complex relationship between the earth and the indigenous female form through performance. The idea of 'possession' serves as a central motif; possession of people, possession of land, possession of language, possession as punishment, possession as a divine act that connects us with the gods. Within this concept, Pacific artist Jahra Rager explores the realm in-between being a vessel for other voices, traditions and ideologies whilst still attempting to reclaim a human-sense of autonomy over one's possessed physical form.
Cudo
14 and 15 October at Q Theatre
Cudo is an exciting urban mixture of beats, mechanical movement, AV and sound technology. The cast creates and reacts to live music production made with tap dancing feet and percussive bodies in space. Manipulated real-time graphic visuals allow the cast to expand on choreographic concepts creating a conversation between mediums.Acrobatic, robotic and liquid hip-hop hybrid movement push the boundaries and explore the vast possibilities of bodies in space and time.
$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more.
Last updated:
16 October 2017
