Makeovers Get A Makeover In New Dance Work

5 April 2006

Makeovers Get A Makeover In New Dance Work

Makeovers get a makeover in a funny, insightful and questioning new dance work created by Raewyn Hill - one of New Zealand's most innovative contemporary dance choreographers - and performed by Footnote Dance in the inaugural Footnote Forte Season, opening in Christchurch this Thursday.

A parade of cosmetic surgery procedures, eating disorders, body waxing and Botox shots all get prodded and explored in Hill's new dance commission "Here lies within", which premieres in this new season initiative from Footnote Dance.

The new work builds upon some of Hill's previous dance explorations into society's obsessions with physical perfection, which often overrides the more important attribute of inner beauty. Hill takes a serious but playful view of the various ways in which people enhance themselves and that are manifested through reality TV programmes, extreme make-overs and trashy magazines.

"My interest in this topic was inspired in New York a few years ago, when I noticed people caught up in the search for the ideal look and image even down to their dogs grooming!" explains Hill.

"Media interest has continued to focus more than ever on the extreme end of the beauty industry with reality makeovers that horrify viewers yet also make it okay to do it. Much of the social stigma associated with body-perfecting has gone. Whether its Botox shots or body-building, a Brazilian or a package-holiday nose job - its a multimillion-dollar industry.

"This dance work is presenting an exaggerated world, but the message I'm keen for audiences to take away is: look on the inside first, before fixing the outside to make yourself feel good."

Renowned for nurturing both emerging and established contemporary dancers and choreographers, the Footnote Forte Season is a new Footnote Dance venture presenting the dance work of a single choreographer in its own touring programme. This inaugural season which also heads to Dunedin and Wellington, includes Hill's previous work for the company, "In time of flight" from 2003, alongside the premiere of "Here lies within".

In keeping with Footnote Dance's philosophy to be as Kiwi-made as possible, all the dance works are performed to New Zealand music; "In time of flight" to an original Nic McGowan score and "Here lies within" to an eclectic range of familiar tunes from well-known New Zealanders including Sir Howard Morrison, Patsy Riggir, Dame Malvina Major, Gareth Farr, Douglas Lilburn, the Phoenix Foundation, Pitch Black and Audiosauce.

The Footnote Forte Season opens at Christchurch's Repertory Theatre on Thursday 6 April at 8.00pm; and then at the Regent Theatre, Dunedin on Wednesday 12 April and The Opera House, Wellington on Friday 5 May.

ENDS

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