Blast from past for Limbs fans

Dunkirk Blade Runner 2049 is another example of a movie that needs to Hearty applause and rousing cheers greeted Limbs@40, a homage to ground-breaking New Zealand contemporary dance company Limbs, featuring six reconstructed works from its historic 160-work repertoire.

Given beautifully polished performance by 27 mostly student dancers from Unitec and the NZ School of Dance, who would never have seen the company perform live, these works provide a blast from the past for Limbs fans.

It is now 40 years since Limbs was founded and 20 years since they ceased performing. The six dances are barely representative of the company’s range — oldies but goodies which have stood the test of time. Dunkirk Dunkirk Variety when the unitards and have bobbling heads and sashaying hips riding over quickly shuffling feet. By contrast, Melting Moments (1980), by the director of Britain’s Rambert company Mark Baldwin, is a slow and controlled sextet, very much a form-based modernist work.

The other three works are more substantial and are performed with panache. O’Reilly’s septet Poi (1983) is a detailed movement study drawn from poi dances and bird behaviour, beautifully presented. One of Limbs original dancer’s Douglas Wright’s trio Knee Dance (1982) is as compelling as ever, drawing you into its weighted intricacies and deeply connected flow of motion.