BodyCartography Project Presents Lagoon

The BodyCartography Project Winners of Fringe NZ 2002 Best Dance and Best Outdoor Production in association with Lambton Harbour Management is proud to present: Lagoon at the Frank Kitts Lagoon, Wellington, 7.30 pm, March 7, 8 & 9, 2003 rain date March 10th, 7.30pm

The BodyCartography Project is proud to present LAGOON, an event that will reveal the vast space, life and beauty of Frank Kitts Lagoon and the city that surrounds it. We will dance on bridges, hills, in the water, in the air and in boats with powerful imagery and physicality interwoven with playful musical compositions. The Wellington air will be filled with sounds from the Pacific, colours from traditional Maori instruments, Latin percussion, contemporary and electronic instruments which will naturally intersperse with the sound of the environment of Frank Kitts Lagoon.

Lagoon is built from the success of The BodyCartography Project’s last Fringe show in 2002 which was seen by over 1200 people. It is directed by Olive Bieringa (NZ) and Otto Ramstad (USA) with music composed by Michelle Scullion (NZ) and will be developed in collaboration with NZ and Australian dance artists, musicians, media artists, non-dancers, students and children.
The dancers will include Gabbi Deighton, Levity Beet, Vicky Kapo, Val Smith, Sarah Campus, Wilhemeena Gordon, Lynne Keary, Jade Tyaas Tungaal (Aus), Alyx Duncan, Geoff Gilson, Maria Wortman, Olive Bieringa, Alyx Duncan, Otto Ramstad and many others.
Musicians involved include the composer Michelle, playing flutes and Koauau, with an electronic score from her studio. Others will include Andres Leper playing his extensive percussion rig, Pati Umuga on electric bass, Joe and Ronnie Moe with Lee Hodgeson on Cook Island drums (Pate) vocals and additional percussion. The score will be amalgamate these instruments and musicians with the dancers and the natural sound of the city. The music will be a blend of prepared score and improvisation moments reflecting dialogue with the dancers throughout the performance.

Commissioned by Lambton Harbour Management this new work will be a celebration of Wellington's wonderful waterfront and the tenth anniversary of the NZ Fringe Festival!
What is the BodyCartography Project?
The BodyCartography Project is a movement and dance ensemble that performs in public spaces, creating a physical dialogue between ourselves and the environments in which we work. Through focused research and playful exploration the BodyCartography artists utilize movement to explore the relationship between public life and artistic expression across landscapes, communities and countries.

The political nature of creating free dance events in public spaces is unique to the BodyCartography Project. Using dance as a tool to engage people in their physical reality as opposed to offering dance in the outdoors as a form of escapism or fantasy. Working with many improvisational dance and music techniques offers openings for new kinds of choreographic and compositional investigation and creation. Community interaction and participation are vital to their work. All of these distinctive features make this work unique to NZ, both to the dance community and the community at large.

Watch out for independent Lagoon artists performing in the BodyCartography Benefit at the BoatShed on February 21st at 8pm till late. Performances with a focus on new and improvisational work will be followed by a dance party. Keep us on the street- Support Public Art!

"BodyCartography :
Eye¹s equivalent of a haiku"
Jennifer Shennan, Evening Post, 2002

"Dancing in public is fighting for freedom"
Eric Fink, participant 1999

"the response was electric"
Apollonaire Scherr, SF Weekly, 1998

"The nature of BodyCartography's work is inherently political...Judging by the looks of sheer exhilaration of participants and onlookers in past performances, this is what 'art' is all about."
Sarah Kinsman, City Voice, 2001

Since 1997 we have created over one hundred and ten performance events internationally with more than four hundred participants and reaching an audience of tens of thousands. Performance highlights include events in the ruins of Sutro Baths in San Francisco, in a dump truck in Minneapolis, the Wellington harbour in New Zealand, and the Burning Man Festival in the desert of Nevada.

Images of our work have been seen in the NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes Magazine and a feature article in Contact Quarterly.

Support for BodyCartography comes from Larsen Interactive, Moving On Center, Intermedia Arts, The Boston Foundation, Creative New Zealand, Forecast Public Artworks, The Vancouver Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, Hewlett Packard Foundation, Wellington City Council, Lambton Harbour Management among others.

to find our more
http://www.bodycartography.org

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