Compass Points To Success At Dance Festival Awards

Media Release
For Immediate Release

Compass Points To Success At Dance Festival Awards

An incredible season of dance which saw Auckland springing into step, the Tempoº New Zealand Festival of Dance wound down their 2007 year with their award ceremony the evening of Tuesday the 30th of October. Winners of some of the categories this year also were rewarded with prizes including a year's subscription to Les Mills, vouchers from Pure Dance and Soul and gifts courtesy of Allpress Coffee.

The night belonged to mixed ability dance troupe Touch Compass, scooping no less than four awards, including the big three: "Best Production", "Best Female Dancer" and "Best Male Dancer" The group's ten year retrospective, which included crowd favourite "Lusi's Eden", saw dancers Dolina Wehipeihana and Jeremy Poi pick up the coveted dancers prize amongst stiff competition from Zoe Watkins (Paper Tiger), Maake Pepene (Whakairo) and Annabel Harrison in their respective groups, with Nik Janiurek taking the "Best Lighting" Gong.

Atamira's "Whakairo", which received critical praise during its season, picked up three awards, with Brett Graham's haunting-yet- beautiful minimalist barbed wire Whare one of the most talked about designs this festival. Moss Patterson picked up the "Best Choreography" award but with competition very close, "Paper Tiger's" Anne Dewey was awarded alongside Patterson.

Pointy Dog and Camper highlighted the newer generation of dancers and their ascent into stardom, picking up awards, while the other end of the generation gap, Old Yeller, received both the "Supreme Performance" and "Most Inspiring Performance" awards proving that, as stated before the festival began, that the art of dance is ageless.

The full list of award winners is as follows:
PRODUCTION
Best Set: Brett Graham (Whakairo)
Best Costume design: Asho Gevorgyan and Sheila Horton (Miniatures - Footnote Dance)
Best Music: Paddy Free (Whakairo)
Best Lighting: Nik Janiurek (Touch Compass)
Best Production - Established Company: Touch Compass (10th Anniversary Retrospective)
Best Production - Emerging Company: Backlit Productions (Leaning Tower of Penchant)
Most Innovative Production: Camper

CHOREOGRAPHY
Best Choreography: Moss Patterson (Whakairo) & Anne Dewey (Paper Tiger)
Best Choreography for a Youth Company: Philippa Pidgeon (Figural Patterns AUT)

PERFORMANCE
Best Performance by a Youth Company: Pointy Dog
Best Youth Performer: Rose Philpott (Pointy Dog)
Best Male Dancer: Jeremy Poi (Touch Compass)
Best Female Dancer: Dolina Wehipeihana (Touch Compass)
Most Inspiring Performances: Old Yeller (Producers Liz Kirk and Ann Dewey)
Spirit of the Festival Award: Backlit Productions
Supreme Performance Award: Debra McCulloch and Dorothea Ashbridge (Old Yeller)

To relive the programme of exciting performance the 2007 festival had on offer, or to keep ahead of upcoming news for 2008's programme, visit http://www.tempo.org.nz

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