Footnote Forte Solo Series
programme notes
SOMEBODY’S DARLING
Choreographer: Michael Parmenter
Dancer : Francis Christeller
Inspired by ‘Somebody’s Darling’
Music: Elegy (1951) Composer: Douglas Lilburn
Songs 1-5 & 7,8 (Sung by Paul Whelan/ Piano: David Harper)
6 (played by Bruce Greenfield)
Poems: Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
Choreographer’s note: Rather than a famous New Zealander, I wanted to take as my inspiration, someone whose name we do not know. Just beside the road near Horseshoe bend at Millar’s Flat, Central Otago is a grave-site with two head-stones side by side. The story goes that in 1864, William Rigney, erstwhile theology student from Ireland working on the goldfields, found on the banks of the Clutha, a shivering dog beside the recently dead body of a good-looking young man. The police were notified but the young man’s identity remained a mystery. Rigney dug a grave and erected a pine slab ‘head-stone’ with the words burned on: “Somebody’s Darling Lies Buried Here”. Rigney cared for the grave for near on a half-century and let it be known that when he died, which he did in 1912, he wanted to be buried alongside the grave. On his headstone was engraved: “Here lies William Rigney, the man who buried Somebody’s Darling”. The two graves beside each other, still lovingly tended to this day, are a poignant landmark in the gorgeous surrounds, and I make sure that I take visitors there on any trip to my home region.
I had a feeling, because of his great affinity for Central Otago, that I wanted to accompany the dance with some music by Douglas Lilburn. Jack Body suggested I listed to Lilburn’s composition Elegy, a setting of poems by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell. Campbell’s poems were published in 1950 as an “in memoriam” for his close friend, 20 year old Roy Dickson who had perished in 1947 on a mountaineering expedition in the Southern Alps. Dickson’s remains were found but in the process of bringing it down from the mountains, the body was lost down a crevasse. Campbell’s wonderful poems evoke the wild landscape of the region and Lilburn’s settings capture the sense of desolation and loss. I was astonished at the degree to which the poems and consequently the song cycle seemed appropriate for a piece focusing on “Somebody’s Darling”. No doubt Lilburn had his own reasons for setting a cycle of poems centered on a lost love.
I informed Francis Christeller, the dancer with whom I was to work on the solo, of the choice of music, and in the process of his own research, he discovered that the first performance of the composition and the first recording were both made by his own grandfather, Gerald Christeller, a former student of Lilburn. Francis wears his grandfather’s recital suit at the beginning of the dance. During our last week of rehearsal, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell himself died at the 79, becoming the most recent of the figures, known or unnamed, who are contained under the appellation Somebody’s Darling.
FIRECRACKER
Choreographer: Sarah Foster
Dancer: Anita Hunziker
Inspired by the life and music of Pip Brown aka Ladyhawke
Music: Teenager - Luke and Angie, Good Together/Italin, Alone Again
Choreographer’s Note: Anita Hunziker is a firecracker - so it seemed natural to work on a solo with her based around Pip Brown - another firecracker of a similar age, and hair colour. Pip Brown has a lazy eye, and I have a lazy eye too, so it all seemed to make complete sense.
Pip (Phillipa) Brown is Ladyhawke - a UK based pop sensation and also a local girl, having been born in NZ and raised in Masterton and Wellington. Pip has also been involved in bands Two Lane Blacktop (NZ) and Teenager (Australia) who I have a particular appreciation for.
Anita and I were interested in making a cathartic onslaught of movement - a never-ending chain of choreography that creates at times a sense of chaos and anxiety.
‘We were all once teenagers listening to music really loud, jumping on our bed with the door shut.’
Pip Brown, Feb 2008
STEALTH
Choreographer: Ross McCormack
Dancers: Jeremy Poi
With Gina Andrews by courtesy of the New Zealand School of Dance
In response to the graffiti art of DLT.
Music: Jody Lloyd
Choreographer’s Note: Hip Hop is a field that has provided an introduction for a number of young men in New Zealand to contemporary dance. Initial discussions with Jeremy put me onto the trail of Darryl Thompson (DLT) and the idea of creating something inspired through graffiti. Not wanting to single out one particular work or represent his body of work, I began to looking into the change in style of lettering and revisiting Jeremy’s own Tag from earlier days.
A few simple letters gave us a starting point to develop movement based on their flow. We looked at the evolution in the style and shape of letters, the transition from a soft, rounded, almost bubble like quality, to the sharper more angular character-based works of today. Speed and articulation was consistently a huge factor. These qualities also describe movement so it gave us plenty to aim for. Using an old board, hopefully Stealth plays on the connection an artist may develop with a surface - A freshly painted wall or even our own skin can present itself and provoke work to be put up.
The music was composed by Jody Lloyd, original member and founder of New Zealand’s infamous hip hop group “Darktower” now based in Melbourne. Stealth marks our second collaboration.
