Bex wrapped her busiest show season EVER with Tiny Tutus at AAAB - time for a well-deserved holiday break! Merry Xmas and happy summer to everyone from TFC x
Sir Jon Trimmer celebrated his 80th birthday in Paekakariki with loads of ballet whanau. Hamstring flexibility remains in top shape...
Bex with Albany Senior High School Dance students backstage at their annual Dance Showcase. Bex has been working with the students on original contemporary choreographies for NCEA assessments.
Photography courtesy of ASHS Costumes depicted are from other dance works. 
Gemma styled by makeup artist Andrea Howes for Jaqualyn Taimana Williams' newest music video Trees. Link to the finished music video coming soon...
We had a great time making the choreography for Jaqualyn Taimana Williams' music video Diversity. You can check out dancers Gemma, Jade, Rai and Tamzin in the finished product here.
 One of our craziest and most ambitious one-day music video shoots - The Truth by kiwi legends Decades Lycra + water pistols + paint Featuring the running man talents of Gemma, Maddie, Sarah, Stevie & Tamzin. 
  Our contribution to Tempo's digital initiative SnapDance was the result of an amazing collaboration of creative talents. Thank you for making this happen! Dancers: Gemma, Stevie, Shannon, Maddie, Georgia and Hope Costumes: Coralie Hale Editing: Emma Cameron Venue: Al's Deli
After some secret rehearsals with friends and family Ravi proposed to Jess at Bastion Point in Auckland. We were so privileged to share their special moment...and she said YES!
Artistic Director Brigitte Knight recently choreographed Lucrece for The Auckland Shakespeare Company, working on movement for both the actors and the Greek chorus. See Leigh Sykes' full review below (courtesy of Theatre Review). "As Rita Stone points out in her Director's Notes, “turning a narrative poem into a viable, full-scale theatrical production for four actors and a Greek chorus [is] uncharted territory” but Stone and her team should be congratulated for the fine job they have done in charting the unexplored and creating a satisfying and truly theatrical experience... The play steps up a gear as Tarquin reaches his decision to give in to his lust and go to Lucrece's chamber to ravish her, while Collatinus and Lucia watch, perched on small platforms suspended from the ropes that frame the space. It strikes me that having these characters suspended above the action in this way hints at voyeurism, but it is also very effective in allowing us to see clearly their responses to the events that unfold; events that they must describe but which they cannot stop. I particularly like the use of the Chorus in this section. Their masks and sharp, angular movements make them seem very alien and forbidding, as they too try to stop Tarquin's progress towards Lucrece, only to fail. When Tarquin and Lucrece come face to face, the play really takes off, as the characters and the impending events become more real through this dialogue. Gittins does an admirable job of making Tarquin's battle between self-loathing and resolution believable as he strikes terror into Lucrece, and the poem is mined very skilfully here to give these characters their voices. As Tarquin blames Lucrece's beauty for his actions, I feel many echoes and connections to other Shakespeare plays (Richard III blaming Lady Anne's beauty for the murder of her husband for example), but also to 2016, where so many women are routinely told that they have provoked the monstrous events that have happened to them by the way they have dressed or behaved, and where young women are told that they must take responsibility for not distracting young men by wearing school uniform modestly. This blame culture is insidious, and it is apparent that Shakespeare has been making this plain for over 400 years. The attack on Lucrece is staged sensitively and effectively, allowing us to focus on the aftermath of the event. Throughout this sequence both Gittins and Hill display a clarity of language and action that supports the narrative well. The aftermath of the rape continues to resonate with modern circumstances as Lucrece is forced to recount the details of her attack so publicly, before shockingly taking her own life. Stone's direction of the piece is assured, allowing the language and the performances to breathe, while driving the narrative forward with pace. This is a hugely impressive achievement, creating a dramatic, strong narrative supported by committed performances. Experiencing this show is an opportunity that should grasped and savoured." Leigh Sykes, Theatre Review NZ 
Artistic Director Brigitte Knight greatly enjoyed working with the cast of Close City to create theatrical movement and characterisation for this extraordinary, absurdist play. "In the intimate space of the Basement Studio, a series of strangely poetic images are brought to life with intensely physical performances and as in a dream, fragments of everyday conversation are imbued with the portentous significance of an oracle.
At times the treatment of sexual violence is deeply disturbing, but the talented cast is able to focus attention on the human emotions behind the play's nightmarish vision. Sheena Irving movingly expresses the existential torment of a woman who loses her identity as she alternates between a loveless marriage and the depravity of the sex industry. Jeff Szusterman effectively gives voice to a persuasive sense of alienation and Thomas Sainsbury brings amusing irony to his portrayal of psychotic villain who likes to indulge in gleefully deranged gastronomic fantasies." Paul Simei-Barton, NZ Herald "With clever metaphors between glass and the innate fractures of close relationships, parallels pertaining to the distance of cities, (Malmo & Copenhagen) and the journey of discovering another part of oneself previously repressed, albeit far from home, Close City is a story that alongside superb acting, clever and detailed artistic direction that leaves one feeling not quite the same as when they entered.Thought-provoking and engaging, this is one show of the Basement Theatre’s Spring Season that is a must-see!" Monique Perera - Mac + Mae |
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