KEY POINTS:
Auckland dance groups Atamira Dance Collective and Touch Compass premiere new works at the month-long Tempo Festival of Dance, which opens this weekend. Both performances create windows on to different worlds.
Touch Compass is a mixed ability company which has produced work for the past 11 years. As the name suggests, the company comprises a wide range of dancers, some with physical or mental disabilities, some without.
Herald dance critic Bernadette Rae has described the company's journey as "truly remarkable", saying their 10th anniversary tour was "significant ... ravishing". High praise that must bode well for their new work, Harmonious Oddity.
Artistic director Catherine Chappell says the world portrayed in the show is surreal and dream-like. Created with Brazilian theatre director Pedro Ilgenfritz, Harmonious Oddity features eight dancers, props and filmed projections.
Jesse Johnstone-Steele takes centre stage with the dance following his anxieties through the creation and rehearsal of a new work. One of the twists is the film representing his reality and danced action recreating his subconscious. A founding member and polished dancer, Johnstone-Steele has an intellectual disability. Chappell says there are still people who wrongly believe that Touch Compass is all about "being kind".
"I get sick of it really. One year I flipped out and had a huge rant which wasn't the right thing to do. Touch Compass is all about art and we have high expectations of all our dancers."
While Chappell says she has the normal logistical worries about the show, she is not at all concerned about the content. The company has spent two years creating the work and she feels it has a strong narrative and is accessible without being dumbed down.
The programme also features an improvised aerial work with suspended dancers and wheelchairs, and Grotteschi, a duet by Suzanne Cowan that explores myths of "classical" and "grotesque" bodies and how they relate to one another. Chappell says it is visually stunning, with an "amazing" spider woman costume.
Ocean breezes and the pearly trail of the Pacific infuse the four new dance works which the Atamira Dance Collective will present at Tempo.
Formed in 2000, Atamira is a critically acclaimed group that has been described as "the hotspot of contemporary dance in Auckland", and honoured with Tempo New Zealand Festival of Dance awards. The new show, Mapunapuna (rippling outwards), was inspired by the company's tour of Hawaii earlier this year and the idea of the Pacific as being a series of "first footsteps".
Artistic director Dolina Wehipeihana says the company has had "a bundle of fun" creating the work. With 10 dancers in the company, four of whom are choreographers, they are all supporting the choreography process and dancing in each other's works.
Wehipeihana and Waimihi Hotere's work The Starlight Ballroom was inspired by Wehipeihana's research into Maori showbands and conversations with her parents about the youthful fun they had at Hamilton's Starlight Ballroom.
"It is set in the 50s and 60s around the idea of the old dance halls where the men stood on one side and the women on the other."
Wehipeihana was mindful that she did not want the costumes to be like the ones in Grease but says anything less than full circles and tulle petticoats would not have worked.
There are three other new dances rounding out the programme. Maapuna, created by Jack Gray, explores the beauty of Hawaiian hula without being totally hula focused. Te Kore by Maaka Pepene is a duet about potential and creation which, Wehipeihana says, was inspired by the experience of being a new father. The energetic Waiata Poi draws on the rhythms of poi. Created by guest choreographer Moana Nepia, it is set to an original soundscape of poi, breath, piupiu and song.
Performance
* What: Touch Compass - Harmonious Oddity
* Where and when: Maidment Theatre, Oct 1-4
* What: Atamira Dance Collective - Mapunapuna
* Where and when: Tapac Theatre, Oct 1-3
* On the web: www.tempo.co.nz
