The BodyCartography Project Winners of Fringe NZ 2002 Best Dance and Best Outdoor Production in association with Lambton
Harbour Management is proud to present: Lagoon at the Frank Kitts Lagoon, Wellington, 7.30 pm, March 7, 8 & 9, 2003 rain date March 10th, 7.30pm
The BodyCartography Project is proud to present LAGOON, an event that will reveal the vast space, life and beauty of
Frank Kitts Lagoon and the city that surrounds it. We will dance on bridges, hills, in the water, in the air and in
boats with powerful imagery and physicality interwoven with playful musical compositions. The Wellington air will be
filled with sounds from the Pacific, colours from traditional Maori instruments, Latin percussion, contemporary and
electronic instruments which will naturally intersperse with the sound of the environment of Frank Kitts Lagoon.
Lagoon is built from the success of The BodyCartography Project’s last Fringe show in 2002 which was seen by over 1200
people. It is directed by Olive Bieringa (NZ) and Otto Ramstad (USA) with music composed by Michelle Scullion (NZ) and
will be developed in collaboration with NZ and Australian dance artists, musicians, media artists, non-dancers, students
and children.
The dancers will include Gabbi Deighton, Levity Beet, Vicky Kapo, Val Smith, Sarah Campus, Wilhemeena Gordon, Lynne
Keary, Jade Tyaas Tungaal (Aus), Alyx Duncan, Geoff Gilson, Maria Wortman, Olive Bieringa, Alyx Duncan, Otto Ramstad and
many others.
Musicians involved include the composer Michelle, playing flutes and Koauau, with an electronic score from her studio.
Others will include Andres Leper playing his extensive percussion rig, Pati Umuga on electric bass, Joe and Ronnie Moe
with Lee Hodgeson on Cook Island drums (Pate) vocals and additional percussion. The score will be amalgamate these
instruments and musicians with the dancers and the natural sound of the city. The music will be a blend of prepared
score and improvisation moments reflecting dialogue with the dancers throughout the performance.
Commissioned by Lambton Harbour Management this new work will be a celebration of Wellington's wonderful waterfront and
the tenth anniversary of the NZ Fringe Festival!
What is the BodyCartography Project?
The BodyCartography Project is a movement and dance ensemble that performs in public spaces, creating a physical
dialogue between ourselves and the environments in which we work. Through focused research and playful exploration the
BodyCartography artists utilize movement to explore the relationship between public life and artistic expression across
landscapes, communities and countries.
The political nature of creating free dance events in public spaces is unique to the BodyCartography Project. Using
dance as a tool to engage people in their physical reality as opposed to offering dance in the outdoors as a form of
escapism or fantasy. Working with many improvisational dance and music techniques offers openings for new kinds of
choreographic and compositional investigation and creation. Community interaction and participation are vital to their
work. All of these distinctive features make this work unique to NZ, both to the dance community and the community at
large.
Watch out for independent Lagoon artists performing in the BodyCartography Benefit at the BoatShed on February 21st at
8pm till late. Performances with a focus on new and improvisational work will be followed by a dance party. Keep us on
the street- Support Public Art!
"BodyCartography :
Eye¹s equivalent of a haiku"
Jennifer Shennan, Evening Post, 2002
"Dancing in public is fighting for freedom"
Eric Fink, participant 1999
"the response was electric"
Apollonaire Scherr, SF Weekly, 1998
"The nature of BodyCartography's work is inherently political...Judging by the looks of sheer exhilaration of
participants and onlookers in past performances, this is what 'art' is all about."
Sarah Kinsman, City Voice, 2001
Since 1997 we have created over one hundred and ten performance events internationally with more than four hundred
participants and reaching an audience of tens of thousands. Performance highlights include events in the ruins of Sutro
Baths in San Francisco, in a dump truck in Minneapolis, the Wellington harbour in New Zealand, and the Burning Man
Festival in the desert of Nevada.
Images of our work have been seen in the NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes Magazine and a feature article in Contact
Quarterly.
Support for BodyCartography comes from Larsen Interactive, Moving On Center, Intermedia Arts, The Boston Foundation,
Creative New Zealand, Forecast Public Artworks, The Vancouver Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, Hewlett Packard
Foundation, Wellington City Council, Lambton Harbour Management among others.
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