A Pacific Island story

Neil Ieremia, artistic director of Black Grace, has gone back to his Samoan roots for inspiration for the new full length work ‘Gathering Clouds’

Review: The Collection

Review of the dance performance, The Collectio

Review: Acquisitions 06

Review of Acquisitions 06

Dance and disability: Embracing difference, tensions and complexities

In this paper I am particularly interested in unpacking the notion that dancers with a visible disability are both marginalised and hyper-visible. I refer to selected dance examples available on YouTube and consider these in relation to Whatley’s (2007) presumption of difference indicators in support of my aim to expand research into the area of dance and disability. Viewing these dance examples provided a ‘bouncing off’ point from which to unpack how these performances are perceived and made meaningful by their audiences. Drawing from discussion tasks set at several different conferences in response to viewing these dance examples, I share initial findings and consider issues that arose in embracing difference, tensions and complexities

Somatic teacher/sage Sondra Fraleigh

Somatic teacher and sage Sondra Fraleigh discusses somatics and Butoh. Sondra Fraleigh is an American academic, accomplished writer and well-renowned teacher of dance, particularly in the field of somatics. In January this year, Sondra accepted an invitation from the Soul Centre in Auckland to visit New Zealand

DVD Review: Move it

DVD review of Move it (Dance class choreographed and taught by Anita Hutchins)

DZIAH to dance

Sue Cheesman talks to Billy Paea, director of DZIAH, a South Auckland-based hip hop dance crew

Review: Fluid

Review of dance: Flui

Olive and Otto: Placing dance outside the theatre-within the body

Olive Bieringa, a first generation New Zealander, and Otto Ramstad, a third generation American, travel the globe by desire and necessity in order to connect with land, family, explore new cultural contexts and sustain their work practices in dance. These two co-directors, dance performers and video artists regularly return to New Zealand, this time primarily, to run a weeklong BodyCartography project, and to teach the first Body-Mind Centering© (BMC) workshop in NZ

Wendy Wallace moving on gracefully

Wendy Wallace has been the associate director and head of contemporary dance at the New Zealand School of Dance, in Wellington for over eight years. She is now moving to Auckland to become rehearsal director for Black Grace. Sue Cheesman talks to her about her time with the school and her new role with the company