A multi-talented force of theatre
Paul John Jenden, dance and theatre practitioner: b Wellington, October 5, 1955; d Wellington, October 26, 2013, aged 58.
PAUL JENDEN’S talents as a choreographer, performer, designer, lyricist and director were a force in dance and theatre in Wellington during a 37-year freelance career.
His lively, often wicked, sense of humour laced the many pantomimes and cabarets he staged at Bats, Taki Rua, Downstage and Circa theatres. But Jenden well knew that timing of comedy and detail of costume are serious business.
Hairy Maclary was skilfully transferred from Lynley Dodd’s page to the Opera House stage, but he confessed that the show nearly foundered. A 7-year-old complained that he’d got the wrong dog because the identification tag on Hairy Maclary’s collar was a different red. Jenden agreed, found a yoghurt pot lid of the correct shade, attached it to the dog collar, and reputations were saved. (The costumes are also saved, in Te Papa.)
Jenden was the second child of Marjorie and Frank Jenden, and brother of Raewyn. The family lived in Tinakori Rd, then moved to Porirua in 1957. His career as a director began early – aged 8, at Porirua Primary School in a classroom production he adapted from Charlotte’s Web.
He attended Tawa College (where his mother was librarian) then studied a double major in French and English at Victoria University. He learned the cello, loved cats, but refrained from much in the way of outdoor pursuits. He adored going to the ballet, and developed interests in mime and puppetry, though his dance training started late.
In 1976, Jenden was a founding member of Impulse Dance Theatre, directed by Jamie Bull. His first choreography was titled Of a Feather and, having learnt the art and secrets of sewing from his mother, he knew exactly what the dancers would wear.
In 1980, Jenden travelled to the United States, where he met Louis Solino, a longstanding member of the Jose Limon Dance Company. They lived in a colourful Harlem neighbourhood, travelled and performed in Canada, Europe and Asia, returning to New Zealand in the mid-1980s.
Solino taught at New Zealand School of Dance where his numerous pedigree stagings of the Doris Humphrey-Jose Limon repertoire were always impeccably costumed by Jenden. The young dancers in all those heritage works have never forgotten the experiences.
The first Hairy Maclary Show was commissioned by the school’s director, Anne Rowse. Jan Bolton’s winning music gave it instant lift-off, and there were return seasons and successful tours to Australia. There were duos with Solino, the macabre Dead Ballerinas, the svelte Dancing the Gay Fandango, and a side-splitting 15-minute version of Swan Lake (solo, plus a cast of props).
Jenden’s designs nailed the essence of things, and despite a low or zero budget, he could make a detail evoke a zoo, a library, a bedroom, a society, a sub-culture, an era.
In 1989, Jenden choreographed a fabulous Le Papillon for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Referencing the original from 1860, with music by Offenbach, he brought the fairy and goblin world to life, giving smashing opportunities to seasoned performers Jon Trimmer, Karin Wakefield, Kerry-Anne Gilberd, Stephen Nicholls, and, hidden among the corps de ballet of white butterflies, several males dancing en pointe.
In An Evening to Remember (1986) the dancers waltzed their claim to that title, while Jacqui Trimmer, the wall-flower on the sideline, tugged the audience’s heartstrings.
In 2008, Limon’s centenary, Paul gave a memorable reading of Othello in The Moor’s Pavane. Several times he danced Limon’s Chaconne. No other New Zealander has bothered or proved able to dance this masterpiece, and those who witnessed his sublime and musically inspired performances saw Jenden at his noble best. Without exaggeration, still listen to one of my albums because it wasn’t just a party record, but something that would engage you emotionally, he was equal to Baryshnikov who had performed Chaconne when touring here.
Jenden directed and designed pantomimes scripted by Roger Hall, in collaboration with composer Michael Nicholas Williams ( Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood), historical musicals with Gareth Farr ( Troy, Monarchy, Nero, Rome), and cabarets including Fairy Stories, all seasonal winners for Circa. Jenden won a design award at World of Wearable Arts, and twice won the Chapman Tripp award of Designer of the Year.
He understood textiles and how they behave. In all the thousands of costumes, special effects, masks, animal dress-ups, flashing batterydriven codpieces and pasties, gorgeous, satirical, outrageous and over the top, there was never once a wardrobe malfunction. Performers took confidence from what they wore, and Jackie Clarke’s gown in his last production, at Circa, C–A Musical, was wearable art if anything is.
In that remarkably courageous work, in July, Jenden negotiated a fine line between his determination to live well and a stoic acceptance of the diagnosis of leukaemia.
Many listeners nationwide heard Jenden’s memorable interview with Kim Hill (and might like to hear it again, online). When asked to identify his own dress style, Jenden fired back
Sweet Jane ‘‘1960s lesbian’’, meaning comfortable tracksuit, easy to wash and allowing time for the real work of dressing others.
The Renaissance quality of sprezzatura, a gracious nonchalance, masking all effort, was born again in Jenden’s work. It fools the audience into thinking everything’s easy, so they relax into having a very good time.
Jenden had a very good time, too. It is certainly true that the dance establishment could have used his talents more, and he mostly lived on very lean pickings, but he preferred to dwell on what did happen, rather than on what did not.
He performed in this year’s WoW, romping round as a horse, but was unable to complete the season due to serious infections that saw him admitted to hospital where he died a few weeks later.
Jenden’s life will be celebrated at an event to be held at Circa. Instructions for it read: ‘‘Nothing serious, sad or maudlin.’’ It is about Paul Jenden, after all.
Sources: Louis Solino, Raewyn Janota, Jamie Bull, Ann Mallinson. Anne Rowse, Bill Sheat, Jon Trimmer, Jacqui Trimmer, Jane Woodhall The Dominion Post’s birth, death and celebration notices can now be viewed online at dompost.co.nz. Tributes and messages can also be left.
WALLY HAMMOND, the owner of Hammonds Scenic Tours, was one of Wellington’s true tourism industry characters.
His father, also Walter Sydney Hammond, was born in Kent, England, and joined the Merchant Navy before settling down to a police career in Wellington in the two decades before World War II.
Mr Hammond senior received the King’s police medal for gallantry after helping rescue people from a steamship that ran aground in Owhiro Bay in 1931.
Young Wally inherited an independent spirit from his policeman father and, according to his brother Ken, was a man who was never really cut out for formal schooling.
For the first 11 years of his life he was raised in a Wallace St home and enjoyed interacting with American marines who were temporarily domiciled in a Central Park camp on Brooklyn Hill in the early years of World War II. He honed his business skills working among the marines by setting himself up as a shoeshine boy.
When the Hammonds moved to Trentham in 1943 he completed his formal education at Trentham Primary School.
With the war over Mr Hammond headed to Central Otago where he became a wellknown identity as a musterer and a shearer on high country stations. While there he spent some time working alongside All Black and Otago lock forward Lester Harvey.
When he returned to the Hutt Valley in 1948 he met Phyllis Purvis. The couple married in 1954 and she became a stabilising force in his life.
The Upper Hutt Leader dutifully reported on the wedding, stating that Mr Hammond’s younger brothers Ken and Bruce