The New Zealand Dance Company Presents Night Light

The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC) presents, in its home city of Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, Night Light – an evening of earthy contrast for two performances only on August 13 and 14 at ASB Waterfront Theatre with tickets on sale from today.

In a year where live performance was so abruptly taken away, NZDC is humbled to invite audiences back into the theatre to experience this thrilling double bill of The Fibonacci and Uku – Behind the Canvas.

Dance, like most performing arts, is most powerful when shared as part of a live audience and in this complementary double bill by two dynamic New Zealand choreographers, the ancient sequence of nature and an environment that exists between fiction and reality will be brought to life, leaving audiences in awe of the talent and artistry brewing right here on our shores.

Recently appointed co-Artistic Directors, Tor Colombus and James O’Hara said, “Coming out of isolation and introversion, Night Light is a reflective offering in response to this moment in time we are collectively living through and an evening that invites us to listen, consider, re-gather and also to celebrate how fortunate we are in New Zealand to be able to do so.

Being one of the first dance companies to return to live performance since we all retreated into our homes and bubbles, we are thrilled to share with you two contrasting yet complimentary New Zealand choreographic voices in this double bill commissioned by Founding Chief Executive/Artistic Director, Shona McCullagh.”

The Fibonacci by Colombus premieres in Auckland as “a dreamy terracotta performance” (Nexus) that explores energy pathways through dance, sound and place in relationship to the mathematical Fibonacci sequence. With a “movement vocabulary [that] is fluid and attractive, drifting effortlessly between the natural and the mechanical” (Theatreview), the work reveals a tapestry of pattern and form, which provokes a feeling of connection to something deeper than the detail of each individual action.

The world premiere of emerging Māori choreographer Eddie Elliott’s Uku – Behind The Canvas is a journey through the power of vulnerability and the strength within struggle. Eddie has something to say and reveals the complexity of his own human experience, drawing from the pūrākau (storytelling) held within Te Ao Māori interwoven with NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) and inspiration from visual artist Andy Denzler. Anticipation and intensity are at the heart of riveting movement paired with cleansing uku (clay), which symbolises the relationship between Hineahuone and Tāne – where we’ve come from and where we will return.

Colombus and O’Hara added, “We are conscious that the last few months have been challenging for us all and that our artist friends and peers have had a particularly difficult time. This is reflective in our accessible ticket pricing, and if you can, we encourage you to take advantage of the ‘Get a Ticket, Give a Ticket’ offering , which means you can gift a ticket to someone who may not have the means to be able to join us without your help.

We would love for this moment to be a celebration by and for all, and for the ritual of performance to once again be the gift that gives from both sides of the theatre.”

From floating through time and space, observing nature’s mysterious golden spirals in The Fibonacci to grounding down with feeling in Elliott’s Uku - Behind The Canvas where confronting storytelling is at its most raw, Night Light will leave audiences reinvigorated and uplifted from the joy of once again experiencing dance liveon-stage.

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