Before we present our new Semi-Opera later this year, we have a couple of somewhat different shows as part of the Classical on Cuba festival! One of these, in true QC style, presents contrasting seventeenth century music by Steffani and Bononcini for voice, and trumpets.
The other performance we’re involved with is DecoDance, a work by Internationally renowned and multi-award winning DANCE artist Chrissie Parrott AO.
Working with Chrissie and her dancers is an exciting new way for us to emphasise how period performance is both authentic and contemporary.
Chrissie explains: “The work is a pastiche with the underlying message that we are ultimately just simple human beings often hiding behind a public mask. It also triggers thoughts of colonialism…. but what attracts people to the work is its underlying dark humour.”
Dr Jo Pollitt says: “DecoDance is a work that reveals Chrissie’s unapologetic risk-taking in terms of staging and subject matter that results in visceral visual poetry that sparks rigorous conversation and keenly embodied experiences for audiences. Re staging DecoDance in New Zealand will enable a new audience to be impacted by a lineage of Dance Theatre that pitches audacious vaudeville scoring with satire, and humanness with the more-than-human.”
DecoDance will be performed in the grand foyer of the St James Theatre on both Saturday 23 July and Sunday 24 July, featuring four NZ based dancers and Soprano Barbara Paterson; with live accompaniment by The Queen’s Closet Baroque Orchestra led by Gordon Lehany.
Images of DecoDance: by Bohdan Warchomij
Media Contact: Tracy Routledge 0412 223 221 or tracy@trpr.com.au
