New modern dance company to visit

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34128, 14 April 1976, Page 6

New modern dance company to visit

Christchurch audiences will have the chance to see a new Wellington dance company early next month. Impulse Dance Theatre Company is the first professional modern dance company with an all-New Zealand cast.

Its three-day Christchurch season will open at the Ngaio Marsh Theatre on May 7. The director, Jamie Bull, considers the trip south the company’s biggest challenge of its first touring season.

With a new audience, and a large theatre to fill, it will be something of a test for the five dancers. Already they have danced to critical acclaim away from their Wellington base in Levin, Wanganui, Masterton, and Palmerston North.

The company believes it has a responsibility to bring

ballet to the people, particularly those in smaller communities. It is also giving lecture-demonstrations in schools, and taking master classes for dancers. In this way it hopes to generate a continuing interest in modern dance.

“If we can create any kind of need within a community, then we want to return there regularly and do al! we can to foster the art of dance,” says Jamie Bull. A workshop in Christchurch is planned rom May 8 to May 10. It will be held at the University of Canterbury, and will cover tech-

nique, locomotion work, and composition.

Their repertoire includes works by Gaylene Sciascia, who has choreographed for the New Zealand Ballet and New Dance 73, and by Barbara Robinson. Jamie Bull and the dancers have also created works.

He explains its philosophy of presenting short pieces: “It’s better to introduce modern dance to people byseveral shorter works then a full-length ballet, which, if they didn’t enjoy it. could put them off dance forever. Our programme has works as wide-ranging as a takeoff on rugby to an abstract piece based on the paintings of Joan Miro.”