Two powerful performances open Wanaka festival
WANAKA’S week for arts aficionados launched with powerful performances from the Royal New Zealand Ballet celebrating two new works and from Maori collaborators addressing climate change.
Choreographer Louise Potiki Bryant, singerinstrumentalist Ariana Tikao and composer Paddy Free treated the opening audience to live highlights from their video installation, which runs for the duration of the Festival of Colour.
Their moody and haunting Te Taki o te Ua/The Sound of Rain offered a Maori perspective on climate issues, including a brutal contemporary dance haka that was more confrontational that any All Black performance.
The Royal New Zealand Ballet finally managed to showcase Ultra Violet, a Loughlan Prior choreography initially slated to open at the Royal Opera House in Covent
Garden but halted by Covid19.
London’s loss was Wanaka’s gain, as a breathtaking piece explored how some nonhuman species see the world literally in a different light.
Dancers fittingly flitted mothlike through light and shade, bare arms and legs flashing in the cool blue light of night as they paired and parted in delicate dreamlike sequences set to Claire Cowan’s ethereal compositions.
Every move seemed effortless, despite the difficult lifts and exacting precision required, particularly in group work. Otherworldly, complex, delightful, exquisite and memorable.
The cool Ultra Violet was a complete contrast to the following hotto trot The
Autumn Ball, a Festival of Colour commission from choreographer Sarah FosterSproull set to driving compositions from Eden Mulholland.
This look at the human lifespan was an uptempo frenetic burst of technicolour, racing from birth and the development of the individual and relationships to work, midlife reflection and winding down to a fulfilling end.
Brilliant autumn colours glowed in costume and lighting, and challenging fastpaced crossstage work saw almost constant motion.
Heartwarming and joyous.