2008 Footnote Forte Season: Mtyland

Mtyland: Mighty Land or Empty Land?

If you had an empty space to do with whatever you pleased, what on earth would that be?

Footnote Dance, New Zealand’s national contemporary dance company, is pleased to announce the homecoming of one of New Zealand’s most outstanding choreographers Claire O’Neil, presenting a new work Mtyland for the 2008 Footnote Forte Season.

Forte is an initiative by Footnote Dance to present work by an outstanding choreographer. Claire O’Neil returns home to New Zealand after a decade of dance performance and choreography with some of Europe’s finest dance institutions.

O’Neil’s Mtyland explores the notion that in “nothingness there is everything” - if you had an empty space, what would you do with it?

In the title is additional meaning, as O’Neil is returning home to raise her newborn first child, Georgie Rose. Is the country she returns to, the country of her birth and the country to raise her child, a mighty land? An empty land? Or is it whatever we decide it to be?

In a year in which New Zealand heads to the polls to cast judgement on its recent past and decide on its future, O’Neil questions how we have filled our country over time, politically, socially and artistically, and when will we tip the balance and empty out again.

Mtyland takes a look at the individual’s responsibility for our actions, how we imprint ourselves in the empty space, and how we can fill ourselves to an overload.

2008 Footnote Forte Season: Mtyland

Wellington: The Opera House, 8pm September 5 & 6
Auckland: Sky City Theatre, 8pm October 14
Christchurch: James Hay Theatre, 8pm October 16

Tickets: 0800 TICKETEK or www.ticketek.co.nz

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By Sarah Knox, Footnote Dancer
 
The shuttle pick up was earlier than ever before. But I think all seven of us were quite excited to start our dance journey to Brisbane and

Hong Kong. We flew first via

Sydney to Brisbane, Anita and Erynne’s home city.  We drove to Queensland University of Technology and coaxed our stiff muscles into moving with a warm up and workshop with the third year students.  The students were keen to share some ideas with us and we based the workshop on That Feel Good Factor.  We then performed parts of our 2008 Made in

New Zealand show.  That night we drove to The Kooralbyn Resort in Beaudesert where we stayed in accommodation supplied by the Gleeson’s (Erynne’s family).  After a great night’s sleep and much to our amusement, we were greeted by kangaroos across the river when we woke up the next morning.The next two days were spent in Beaudesert filled with workshops and performances at

Beaudesert

High school (Special Ed Unit and Performing Arts) and St Mary’s Primary, both Anita’s old schools. Dinner at the local RSL and also at Anita’s home were highlights of the week as well as watching Bangarra perform in

Brisbane at the Arts Centre.
After having a couple of days to explore Brisbane we re-united and it was another extremely early pick up to fly to Hong Kong.  Flying in over

Hong Kong was spectacular. The view was incredible and as

Hong Kong is so small, it was great to get a sense of where everything was from above.
The trip from the Airport gave us sights of apartment building after apartment building but we were all blown away by the view of

Kowloon from our hotel rooms at the Harbour View International House in Wanchai.  It was only a hop, skip and a jump over the road to the

Hong Kong

Academy for Performing Arts.  We took daily class with the students and our teachers were

Raewyn Hill, Jaime Redfern, and John Utans.  On the last day we were joined by the dancers from the City Contemporary Dance Company who were beautiful and had a wonderful calm and unified vibe. The Footnote dancers were split into two groups for rehearsals. Jeremy, Jesse and Erynne and half the students were with Raewyn working on Nest. And Hannah, Anita and I and the other APA students with a lovely lady called Joy who made a really interesting piece on us.  We didn’t get to see what each other had been working on until the last day which made the informal showing all the more exciting. We performed Te Mana to give the Hong Kong students a taste of

New Zealand contemporary dance culture, and we were all impressed with how much we achieved in the week.  Nest is a beautiful piece.We were honoured to be invited to the New Zealand High Commissioner’s home, up on the Peak.  Luckily it was a clear evening and the view was beautiful. We saw the Hong Kong Ballet perform Tricolor, a program consisting of Suite en Blanc by Serge Lifar, Antony Tudor’s Lilac Garden, The White Swan Pas de Deux from Swan Lake, and Balanchine’s Rubies.  For me the white Swan Pas de Duex was the most memorable piece. It was just exquisite. After shopping, eating, a trip to

Ocean

Park, a lot of heat and an incredible amount of rain, it was time to come home. This time it was a relaxed journey on Sunday evening back to the airport to board the plane bound for Sydney and then

Wellington.  An amazing trip for all of us and I’m sure we all brought home different but very special memories.