I'm so honoured to have created these hero images with Turid Revfeim, the Artistic Director of Ballet Collective Aotearoa, choreographer Loughlan Prior and dancers Abigail Boyle and William Fitzgerald for BalletCollective Aotearoa's premiere season, Subtle Dances.
I've known all four artists for many years through their careers with Royal New Zealand Ballet and during my career in theatre as CEO at St James Theatre and the Opera House, Wellington, the home of the RNZB and as Director of Tempo Dance Festival, as well as photographer, which makes it an even richer experience. Turid was both dancer and Ballet Mistress with RNZB for many years. Abigail and William were Principal dancers with RNZB. Abigail is now Ballet Mistress with the New Zealand Youth Ballet Company and William is an independent dance artist and designer. Loughlan was also a dancer with RNZB and is now choreographer in residence at the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Director of Prior Visual and Co Director of Lo|Co Arts with composer Clare Cowen.
Loughlan and I have also collaborated on photography | choreographer art works, which were exhibited at Across the Bridge Arts Festival 2020 and are represented at the Eade Gallery, Clyde - more on that later.
Subtle Dances is premiering at Auckland Arts Festival on 8 and 9 April 2021 and then at Dunedin Arts Festival on 16 April 2021.
https://www.aaf.co.nz/event/subtle-dances
Couldn't be more excited.
Subtle Dances is a programme of new works created by three of New Zealand's leading contemporary ballet choreographers - Cameron McMillan, Loughlan Prior and Sarah Knox.
The BalletCollective Aotearoa is a newly formed project-based dance company and is thrilled to showcase this new choreography by securing some of New Zealand’s leading dancers including Abigail Boyle, William Fitzgerald and Medhi Angot, alongside exciting young and emerging New Zealand trained talent. Harnessing the energy and vivacity of ballet dancers here in Aotearoa, the works show our unique creativity, shaped by the country’s isolation and rugged landscape. These three ballets aim to express our openness to new and immersive ideas through our many cultural influences and the innate curiosity of all New Zealanders
The BalletCollective Aotearoa is thrilled to be collaborating with the prodigious NZTrio - Amalia Hall (violin), Ashley Brown (cello) and Somi Kim (piano) - who will perform live John Psathas’ work Helix, Claire Cowan’s Subtle Dances (commissioned by NZTrio) and music by Rhian Sheehan, arranged for NZTrio by Ryan Youens.
Witness new homegrown contemporary ballet, performed to live New Zealand music, finding new ways to explore our uniqueness and how we fit within our everchanging landscape.
