US Dancer And Kiwi Sculpture Make Potent Mix
Words Juliana Venning Images By Alan Brydon
Elbert Watson
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Elbert Watson Principal Dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Norfolk, Virginia, USA has just completed a tour
of mainly al fresco performances around Aotearoa’s South Island. Elbert came here to create performance pieces with
fellow artist and sculptor Timothy Mark. For part of this, Elbert and Timothy Mark drew their inspiration from Takaka’s
quarry, site of the marble which Tim sculpts with.
They have been working towards this for seven years. Tim is Artist in residence at Forrest Estate Winery, Picton. A
third person involved with their inspirational interpretations, is Alan Brydon. An established Photographer of the Nude,
he has exhibited in New Zealand and in Seattle.
Elbert Watson and Timothy Mark
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Tim and Elbert initially performed a version of their collaboration in the USA, prior to their NZ trip. Alan’s
photographs interpret Tim’s sculpture and Elbert’s dance incorporates all. Alan’s recent Off the Square, exhibition in
Christchurch, has depictions of the dance and of Tim and his sculptures.
Elbert and Tim met as educators, working at Carrara in Italy. The New York Conservatory of Dance was Elbert’s formative
influence. Their paths have intersected for a decade and their artistic performances have spread around the globe; a
further performance in Denmark being a possibility. Their scripts allow freedom for interpretation from individual
artistes who work with them, such as a German musician who joined in at their invitation, on the Le Café performance.
In this latest dance series, Le Café in Picton provided an exciting experimental venue, open to the ocean and the sky
with a central sculpture by Tim, to respond to. Other venues on the tour, were Lochmara Lodge, The Forrest Estate Winery
and Hokitika.
All of which settings, Elbert described as inspiring him, dynamically: adventure, ‘razor rain’, wild scenery. He related
intuitively to the original adventurers in Aotearoa; their courage – Kupe to Cook,as he felt stone surfaces and absorbed
Nature’s forces. Engaging with Nature and technology Video and filming constitute part of their work too. Frames from
films and Alan’s photography are interacted with as they create the dance.
Elbert's response to the photographs and videos in his choreographer’s vision is to view the whole as ‘flamenco with
sculpture’. Rhythms of the act of sculpting suggest a lead in for Elbert, who ‘submits’ to that movement. The result:
interpretative circling hand movement, gesture, some stillness; poses that create anew Tim’s actions and the finished
sculptural effects.
“It is crucial to ‘feel the curve of the stone’.” Elbert says “You have to feel and think as the sculptor does, a
different aesthetic to that I trained in. But it becomes an equal dialogue, a connection of ideas and movement.
Everything is a dance to me. Dance should be a giving back, something that people can relate to. In Le Café especially
this was participatory, people in the café also coming and going around the dance.”
Elbert and Tim struck evocative poses, a ‘wrap up’ a final drawing-in of the circling of Te Wai Pounamu on New Brighton
Beach sands, near the Pier in Christchurch.. Elbert intends to return to engage with South Pacific indigenous artistes,
sculptors, carvers, to create more choreographed collaborations of creations in the round.
ENDS