2004

The 2004 festival again appeared under the moniker, Tempo° : Feel the Heat, Auckland’s Festival of Dance, with the October dates now locked in. Over seventeen days the festival presented a variety of styles and levels of dance, ranging from contemporary professionals, recent dance programme graduates and community dance groups at various venues in the city, including TAPAC, the Maidment Theatre and the Herald Theatre.

Director Sonja Bright believed that ‘the whole dance community has embraced Tempo as its own festival this year’, reflected with the premiere of new works from Michael Parmenter, Raewyn Hill and the Atamira Dance Collective alongside the youth dance company, Pointy Dog, directed by Ann Dewey, Kanan Deobhakta’s Bharata Natyam company and the Egyptian Odyssey by Hossam and Serena Ramzy.

Michael Parmenter opened and closed the festival with two new works: firstly a 75- minute solo, Nightingale Fever, then a few weeks later, a duet for the choreographer and dancer Taane Mete, Tristan and Isolde set to excepts from Wagner’s beloved opera. The latter programme also featured a return viewing of an earlier Parmenter work, Weather, with dancer Sarah-Jayne Howard.

The work of choreographer Louise Potiki-Bryant was showcased by Atamira Dance Collective at the Auckland Town Hall’s Concert Chamber. Ngai Tahu 32 delved into Potiki-Bryant’s whakapapa, in particular the fate of Wiremu Potiki, portrayed by Maaka Pepene. Other performers in the cast were Dolina Wehipeihana, Justine Hohaia, Cathy Livermore, Corinna Hunziker, Jack Gray,Waimihi Hotere, and Katrina Bryant. Terrain, by Guy Ryan and Malia Johnstone (the pair appeared in promotional material for the festival) utilised props and a small set in an intimate setting while Raewyn Hill’s Angels With Dirty Feet featured six dancers- Hill, Craig Bary, Claire Lissaman, Sarah Sproull, Paora Taurima, Gabrielle Thomas- and two actors, Edwin Wright and Nathan Meister, at the Herald Theatre.