wednesday 30th april 2008
(unfinished posting)
"vula"
the conch
directed by ~ nina nawalowalo
associate director / co-producer ~ tom mccrory
producer ~ derek simpson
matai - cultural advisor ~ lani tupu snr
composer ~ gareth farr
designer ~ tolis papzoglou
lighting designer ~ stephen blackburn
lighting operator ~ nick janiurek
puppeteer ~ salesi le'ota
cast ~ fiona collins, kasaya manulevu, ngapaki emery and nora aati
supported by creative new zealand
programme notes:
Performed on a stage flooded with water, Vula (Fijian for ‘moon’) combines magic and illusion with traditional song and dance. With one rich and captivating image flowing into another, it paints an evocative picture of the lives of Pacific Island women and their sensual and spiritual relationship with the sea. As the performers move and dance through the water, they take us on a journey through a Pacific Island day and night. Movement, song and humour intermingle with the glistening water and lighting in a wonderful harmony of elements.
Vula is the first work from groundbreaking Pacific Island company The Conch.
Founded by director Nina Nawalowalo, the company’s work combines the traditional and the contemporary, exploring the potential for marrying the rich performing arts cultures of the Pacific with European theatre styles. Before founding The Conch in New Zealand, Nina Nawalowalo studied mime in London and Paris. For six years she performed and taught all over the world, creating new productions from a unique blend of magic, mask and clowning.
this was a joyful image-and-emotion-rich performance of great beauty, wit, laughter, strength and power and hidden depths. its power came from what this company were able to evoke from the music, movement, occasional mahem & theatre they made in a fabulously lit and shadowed shallow tank of water ...
+ the sound of the surf
+ squeezing the juice from the cava
+ rising out from the sea
+ strong women, low grounded fluid movements reminding me of tai chi (see about cloud gate theatre's "moon water" after this)
+ being underwater with the many (fan)fish
+ the strength and rhythm of rowing
+ sail boats
+ women laughing, singing, playing, washing, teasing, bathing, fooling around, dancing
+ church singers in their white frocks in a delightful sequence that changed the people and what they were wearing with every pass of the sailboat
+ church singers in the rain
+ the women emerging from the cacoons to dance
+ lifting shells and jewels from the sea
+ the horror of hearing and watching sopmething beautiful caught in a net
+ the sounds and splashes and light play and reflection of water
+ a boat returning at night to shore by candlelight
+ the harmonies and rhythms that the sea holds and plays with and lets us hear and imagine with
wonderful wonderful show
wednesday 16 april 2008
"moon water"cloud gate dance theatre of taiwan
as was this show which i will have to come back to talk about when i next have time ...
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