Pinwheel Dance Theatre Presents 'Gizza Hoon'

Melissa Phillips. Photo: Matt Paterson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hey, I just twerked you, And last night’s hazy,
But here’s my number, Gizza hoon, maybe?

Pinwheel Dance Theatre Presents Gizza Hoon

Pinwheel Dance Theatre returns to the NZ Fringe Festival in 2013 with a brand new dance work, Gizza Hoon. The premiere at BATS Theatre will explore the relationship between commercial pop music and Kiwi social interactions. Inspired by the YouTube generation and late night Courtenay Place antics, Gizza Hoon offers dark comic insights and hot sensory explosions.

The creative collaborators behind the critically acclaimed OCD dance work Thricely? Precisely. A pocket full of pips, and surreal rom-com Don’t Eat the Bed have reunited for a third Fringe offering. Choreographer Brigid Costello and composer Tane Upjohn-Beatson along with a variety of skilled dancers and designers are creating an original pop story which steps outside of their comfort zone into the shiny, amplified world of auto-tune, twerking and relentless thumping beats.

Director Brigid Costello is fascinated with the power pop music has over young people. Through her work with teenagers, she has discovered how genuinely captivating and exciting the Top 40 can be for its target audience. ‘There is some pretty explicit content, but it is far from shocking to these followers. They watch and listen to it constantly through their headphones and smartphones, and it directly informs the way they interact with peers and make sense of their world’.

Tane Upjohn-Beatson is an expert sound designer and musician. He recently worked on Project Born with Sir Richard Taylor who said that ‘his skill at weaving an emotional state and journey through a sweeping composition completely enthralled and amazed me’.

Upjohn-Beatson is intrigued by 'formula pop' and was keen to get involved in the creation of Gizza Hoon because pop music ‘is what 90% of the planet not only listens to by choice, but also genuinely loves. I want to crack open the pop formula and find exactly what it is in there that captures or hypnotizes brains.’ He says: ‘I want to see if I can suck myself into the pop ecstasy, something I have until now assumed impossible’.

Joining the creative team as set designer is Robin Aitken of Athfield Architects. ‘I see this as an opportunity to explore how both the set can inform the dance and the dancers can inform and change the shape of the set’ says Aitken. ‘This reflects the ways in which people shape and are shaped by a pop culture environment.’

Gizza Hoon
Where: BATS Theatre www.bats.co.nz
When: 8pm, Fri 8th - Sat 16th March (no show Sun/Mon) Duration: 1 hour
Tickets: $18 Full / $14 Concession / $12 Fringe Addict
Book at: book@bats.co.nz or (04) 802 4175

Gizza Hoon Cast & Crew
Director/choreographer: Brigid Costello
Composer: Tane Upjohn-Beatson
Set Design: Robin Aitken
Graphic design: Alex Keegan
Photographer: Matt Paterson
Production/Stage Manager: Rebecca Sim
Marketing Assistant: Axel Tie
Dramaturg: Thomas McGrath

Cast:
Gina Andrews
Kirsty Bruce
Anna Edgington
Amber Gribble
Melissa Phillips

ENDS

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