Four female choreographers explore the grotesque, acts of protest, women-centred collectives, and idolisation in Footnote's latest NOW season.
NOW, an acronym for New Original Work, is in its third year and aims to encourage and support developing choreographers.
This year, coincidentally, the four selected choreographers are all female, including Dunedin-born, Auckland-based Jessie McCall. The others are from around the country - Julia Harvie (Christchurch), Sarah Knox (Auckland) and Lucy Marinkovich (Wellington).
Managing director Richard Aindow said the choreographers were selected through a submission process and this year 26 people applied for the four spaces.
‘‘A lot of people want to work with Footnote as it is an opportunity to create new choreography. Obviously, it is such a thrill to have such a strong application even if it does make it a difficult process,'' Aindow says.
A panel headed by Footnote founder Deirdre Tarrant looked at the subject, the choreographer and the proposed work before selecting the choreographers.
That they were all female choreographers was a coincidence, he said.
Two of the choreographers, Lucy Marinkovich and Sarah Knox, used to dance with the Footnote company.
It was positive to be able to follow a person from the start of their career through to choreography, if that was what they chose to do.
‘‘It's great to have that ongoing journey with them.''
The NOW project meant the choreographers had the space to create work while Footnote handled the practical side of a production.
‘‘Footnote absorbs the stress of that for the choreographer so they can concentrate on the choreography.''
Your Own Personal Exister by McCall features balloons, a Burger King crown and a mixed soundtrack: Peking Duk, Jazzistics, Peaches, Scala and Kolacny Brothers, and Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Outta My Head.
‘‘I like to use bubbly images to look at the less sparkly elements of human behaviour,'' McCall told the NZ Herald.
‘‘Dance, especially contemporary dance, is often perceived as sombre, dark and moody. So I like the idea of changing that without losing the substance.''
In the new work, her memories of ‘‘awful'' birthday parties at the popular hamburger restaurant initiates an exploration of the dynamics of power and idolisation.
McCall enrolled this year in a master's course in psychotherapy at the Auckland University of Technology, after undertaking her own psychotherapy.
‘‘It made a lot of sense. It balances a rigorous methodology and a lot of academics with an holistic openness,'' she says.
‘‘I am doing the course part time, just dipping my toes, really. I don't want to dislocate myself from the dance world.''
Marinkovich's work, Centerfolds, explores women-centric collectives and gender stereotyping. A series of groupings and vignettes mutate, shift and evolve to question the stability of typecasting and gender conditioning.
Knox's work was inspired by a rally she experienced while travelling in Cambodia and questions ‘‘what we do with the fight within us''.
Harvie's Elephant Skin, which is about people's warped perceptions of their bodies, uses balloons as a metaphor for the body and creates problems for the dancers to solve.
The dancers on tour this year are former Kavanagh College pupil Jeremy Beck, who also danced in last year's NOW season, Brydie Colquhoun, Emma Dellabarca, Lana Phillips and Jared Hemopo.
‘‘We have strong Dunedin links this year.''
The company will also participate in community activities while in Dunedin, including Watch This Space, at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
- Additional reporting by New Zealand Herald.
