"We started laughing about that, but then we started thinking about teams and uniforms and how people chose to live and work together in groups, and we decided to make a piece about group behaviour," said McIntosh.
Trained as a dancer, she lives in Belgium and works in Europe, creating pieces that are mixes of spoken text, visual imagery and dynamic physicality.
She and Randerson, a former Burns Fellow at Otago University, have collaborated several times in Europe, but Hullapolloi will be their first in New Zealand.
Because it is made for Footnote Dance Company, they are focusing on the physicality of the performance, she said.
"Our thoughts focused on current social practice, the way we are choosing to live together at the moment in a fairly materialistic society."
Early on, they had the idea for costumes, suits that covered the whole body, including the head.
"It's a way of being sealed into yourself, but also it's a way of being sealed into anagreement within a group wearing these suits, because everyone looks pretty much the same, apart from a colour change.
Then we got interested in how we could also transform inside this suit and distort the body a lot, and that you could also accumulate things inside this new skin and store them."
Working with themes about the human condition, the pair could not help but be influenced by the recent Christchurch earthquake.
"Whenever you are making work, it's very much vibrating with whatever is happening in the real world, and you know the audience is coming in with that in their minds and their hearts, and it makes the show vibrate in a slightly different way," she said.
"I think the show is asking questions about the way we choose to do things together, and the earthquake is making us aware how together everyone is.
"I think in all circumstances, whether they be sad times or happy times, it's always important to keep on asking, 'Is this the way we want to be living together? Is it the kind of society we are hoping for?'
"Of course, it feels easier to criticise during the good times because everything's in a bit of a bubble and everything's OK.
"It feels more harsh to criticise it at times when things feel difficult."
The earthquake has brought out the best in many people, helping others, but it would be nice if that solidarity could be encouraged all the time, she said.
She is looking forward to seeing how New Zealand audiences react to the show.
Working in Europe for the past decade, she says she's out of touch with what's happening here.
European countries consider arts to be an important part of life and support artists at all levels, from big companies through the middle levels to the grass roots, with both funding and free working space.
"These things really help cultural life to develop in quite extraordinary ways.
"In Europe, they take art pretty seriously - I can be a professional artist and no-one questions it.
Dance at the Fringe
Hullapolloi, a new work by Kate McIntosh and Jo Randerson, performed by Footnote Dance Company, plays at Allen Hall, Dunedin on March 17 and 18.
Other Fringe dance performances are:
• March 18-20, Globe Theatre: I Heart (Sweaty Heart Productions).
• March 23-26, Fortune Theatre Studio: Capturing Other (Beautiful Sake Productions).
•March 26, School of Physical Education: Chocolate Zucchini Cookies (Dance Lab).
For more information see www.dunedinfringe.org.nz
