Renowned New Zealand artist Richard Killeen is teaming up with the country's longest-running contemporary dance company — but the 72-year-old is quick to reassure he won't take to the stage.
Instead, Killeen will leave the dancing to Footnote's Georgia Beechey-Gradwell, Tyler Carney, Joshua Faleatua, Anu Khapung and Adam Naughton, who appear in a work choreographed by his own daughter, Zahra Killeen-Chance.
It is the first time father and daughter have collaborated, but Killeen-Chance says growing up in a household where she was surrounded by art-making taught her to look at the world in ways that have influenced the way she makes dance.
"Dance was always my thing and I always thought I would be a dancer, make clothing or do sculpting," she says. "But the art around me provided a way of looking at the world, and at objects, and that has shaped the way I like to make dance. It's quite specific…"
She's created Elliptical Fictions for Footnote's dance double bill, Balancing Point. It includes movements often found in martial arts that she learned during a three-month residency at the Taipei Artist Village in Taiwan and uses music by Wellington composer Emi Pogoni.
