Dunedin dancers tour

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 16

Dunedin dancers tour

The Dunedin Dance Theatre will make the first northern tour of its new programme from May 4 to 13. The company opens in Christchurch at the Southern Ballet Theatre in the Arts Centre on May 4 and 5, and performs in Geraldine on Sunday, May 6. The company will dance in Wellington at the Victoria University Memorial Theatre on May 10 and 11, and the Palmerston North Massey University Theatre on May 12 and 13. The northern tour is a result of a very successful Dunedin season in September last year of new ballets, group and solo dances. Of the major works, three in particular created great interest. Two pieces which make impassioned social comment are the antinuclear war ballet, “Requiem for the Living,” to

the music of Penderecki, and another Amnesty International ballet inspired by the plight of prisoners of conscience, “BARS,” with a sound track especially composed by the Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago, Chris Cree Brown, and slide projections by artist Shaun Burton. Short biographies of prisoners are read at the outset by actors Louise Petherbridge and Gerhard James. Both these ballets were choreographed by the artistic director, Shona Dunlop. Jan Bolwell contributed the third work that attracted especially favourable notice, “Reflections In An Empty Mirror,” based upon surrealist paintings of Paul Delvaux. The dance is set to music by Debussy. An amusing “Cubist Dance” in the style of the famous Viennese dancer,

Gertrud Bodenwieser, is performed as a solo by Jan Bolwell, while one of the two actual original Bodenweiser dances “Snake Charmer,” is performed by Terry MacTavish. The second, Bodenweiser dance, “The Demon Machine” is concerned with the threat of the mounting power of the machine.

Not all the works are serious. “Domestic Scenes 1 and 2,” created and danced by Jan Bolwell and Terry MacTavish, is a lighthearted look at aspects of married life.

“Kaitiki Beach,” by new choreographer Susan Fraser, is inspired by the ebb and flow of the sea, while “Sweataerobics,” is a comic battle between two blatant forms of keep-fit enthusiasts.