Dominion Post Review by Ann Hunt
Te Whaea Theatre, Wellington, until August 29
Touch Compass is a contemporary dance company comprised of disabled and non-disabled dancers and is based in Auckland. It is New Zealand’s only inclusive dance company and their aim is to challenge people’s perceptions of who can dance and what dance is.
Artistic director Catherine Chappell has curated this very enjoyable multi-media dance production, which features two performance works and a series of short films. The setting is an extremely versatile plywood box, known as the DanceBox. The company dances, literally and figuratively, inside and outside the box.
Undertide is a mixed media dance and film work by Body Cartography, United States-based choreographers Olive Beiringa and Otto Ramstad. The opening film sequence resembles beautiful sepia photographs. The minimalist movement is delicate and subtle, yet always intriguing.
Slowly, the film figures morph into live dancers who gradually ascend to the box and take over the performance. The ending, with the dancers turning and turning, is a lovely image. Claire Cowan’s mysterious and slightly melancholy music adds to the hypnotic quality of this inventive work.
