Innovative dancer to display talents

Press, 24 February 1988, Page 21

Innovative dancer to display talents

Bronwyn Judge, one of New Zealand’s most innovative dancers, will be in Christchurch for solo performances on March 2,3, 4 and 5. Her dance performance is called “Explosive Image.” It is a collaboration of three choreographers, including Judge herself. Each of the three has a different training in movement and dance. Bronwyn Judge’s focus on her body music is complemented by the earthy, jazz movements choreographed by Maggie Burke and the rhythms used by classical Indian dancer Sudha Rao-Gaskin. The dance is in three parts, with each choreographer working on an individual part of the whole. Sudha Rao-Gaskin’s classical Indian dance uses the score from

“Gung Ho,” by the group From Scratch. The movements explore the changing rhythmic layers in the music. It is a contemporary dance drawing from the Indian tradition. Maggie Burke’s work also depends heavily on the music to which it is danced. The music is jazz. Bronwyn Judge’s section is danced in silence. The beat and rhythm so evident in the other two sections in the music is there and implies music. Judge has most recently worked with “The Flying Buttress Company,” touring for the Southern Regional Arts Council, choreographed a ballet for the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s New Moves programme and tutored with Maggie Burke at a workshop on the West Coast. She studied dance in Dunedin where she was

born and worked at Fortune Theatre before studying fine arts at Canterbury University. Since 1977 she has studied and performed —- most often in tandem with Anna Holmes — in Nepal, England,' the United States, Scotland, Wales and New Zealand. Maggie Burke is a dancer and choreographer who lives and teaches in Christchurch, mostly recently as sixth form performance dance teacher at Burnside High School. Sudha Rao-Gaskin lives in Dunedin but performs her Bharata Natyam dance in other centres. Bronwyn Judge’s Christchurch performances will be in the Great Hall at the Arts Centre at 8 p.m. She will follow the Christchurch season with four performances in Dunedin the next week.