Mixed write-up for N.Z. dancers in U.K.

Press, 17 February 1983, Page 10

Mixed write-up for N.Z. dancers in U.K.

NZPA London -Two New Zealand dancers. Anna Holmes and Bronwyn Judge, have had complimentary reviews, tempered with criticism, from two critics in national British newspapers, after performing their own programme in London. Ms Holmes and Ms Judge, who in New Zealand have done most of their dancing in Christchurch, performed "Swivels, Tilts, and Turns,” a programme they choreographed themselves, at Jackson’s Lane Community Centre in Highgate.

The "Guardian” critic, John Percival, said: "There is a definitely homespun quality to what they do, which is at once an attraction and a limitation.” As both dancers have studied Asian dance in Nepal and Indonesia, there was a strong oriental influence in their performance. "One number (none of

their pieces has an identifying title) used fast rhythms and sharp movement’s for purely formal patterns.. Another, with which they opened, was mostly slow, the two dancers using long flexible staves for a kind of duel, also to turn the wide legs of their one-piece garments into wings, in a manner recalling Indonesian examples,” Percival wrote.

The “Daily Telegraph” critic said of this part of the programme that “they managed to achieve an attractive formality." but “the trouble was that this dance went on much too long. In fact, it lasted nearly half an hour, whereas it would have looked much better if cut to 10 minutes.” “In the other two dances, in which they confined themselves to the making of cerebral patterns, their dancing suffered from a lack of formal qualities," the "Daily

Telegraph" said. “When they moved quickly, for example, they failed to point their feet, and when they wore bells around their wrists, the rhythms they produced were dull and simple compared with those achieved by eastern dancers.”

Percival concludes his “Guardian” review: “My impression was, in spite of the mood of the first piece and the skill of the second, that the dancers are still only exploring possibilities and have not yet found an ideal way to use their experience. The result is pleasant enough, but uncompelling."

Ms Holmes and Ms Judge have been performing “Swivels, Tilts, and Turns." in Wales, where they have been living, with the aid of a grant from the Arts Council of Wales.