Tempo Dance Festival - 2016

Carrie Rae Cunningham’s second Tempo festival in 2016 saw some new elements added to the festival lineup; primarily, a ‘legacy work’ that opened the festival. Michael Parmenter’s 1985 Insolent River: a Tango, was revived and set on two different casts of recent dance school graduates. This process of revisiting a major New Zealand dance work from the past and recasting with young dancers was an innovation for Tempo. Parmenter stated that the Butoh-inspired work for Tempo was not ‘a replication of a historic piece’, but that he was ‘bringing it into the language of New Zealand dance as it is now’. The casts (Aloali’i Tapu and Josie Archer/ Kosta Bogievski and Emily Adams) worked closely with Parmenter to create a visceral and moving opening event. 

Another major event of the festival was Tuamata, a programme of four works in Q’s Rangatira space from a diverse range of choreographers working in distinct dance languages; ballet choreographer Loughlan Prior’s Eve, Sarah Foster- Sproull’s  Sisters of the Black Crow, Taane Mete’s Manawa, and Atamira dancer Bianca Hyslop’s, A Murmuation. At the other end of the spectrum was Josie & Kosta’s Dance Show in the Vault. This improvisatory duet between Josie Archer and Kosta Bogievski was intimate, provocative and playful. Fabricate Dance Collective members Caitlin Davey, Lydia Connolly-Hiatt, Cushla Roughan, Rodney Tyrell and Reece Adams premiered new works in the Loft.  

Siva: Niu Sila, a showcase of Pacifika choreographers including Jahra Wasasalla, Katerina Fatupaito, TupuaTigafua and Nikki Upoko saw choreographic voices emerge from Fijian, Samoan and Cook Island perceptions. The works; Wasasalla’s bloo/d/runk, Fatupaito’s Burnt Skin, Plan B by Tigafua and Upoko’s The Call highlighted the integration of traditional and contemporary forms present in the explorations by these young choreographers and dancers. Vou Dance Company from Fiji returned to Tempo with a new work, Vu.  The popular All That... programme also returned with an offering of Jazz-related works, while the Scenic View featured members of Auckland Vogue scene in the Q foyer and in the windows of the Loft space, best viewed from the Scenic Hotel across the road from Q. 

Meremere, by Malia Johnston featured solo performer Rodney Bell in an autobiographical dance/theatre work with music by Eden Mulholland. Johnston’s work Miniatures was also performed, in a new incarnation by students from the New Zealand School of Dance. The youth company Pointy Dog, and the Kids Show highlighted young dance talent while Crow’s Feet, from Wellington, presented their tribute to ten different women in Hākari: the Dinner Party with a cast of older dance artists. 

Another Wellingtonian, Lyne Pringle, was the celebrated recipient of the Honouring a Dancer event.