Celebration of Unitec's contemporary dance

Unitec dance students will perform in the celebratory showcase <i>A Life Between Us</i>. Photo / Supplied

A rare treat is on offer for dance aficionados this week, with the work of five of New Zealand's top choreographers combining in a four-day showcase celebration marking the 21st year of Unitec's contemporary dance programme.

Michael Parmenter, Shona McCullagh, Neil Ieremia, Chris Jannides and Malia Johnston, who have all had close associations with the programme from its inception to the present day, have made works available for the showcase, titled A Life Between Us, to be performed by Unitec dance students.

Charene Griggs, Unitec dance curriculum leader, chose each of the works from existing repertoire for their physicality and technical display, celebratory qualities and to be entertaining, not just for the dance community, she says, but for the general public.

"So there is no inaccessible and experimental contemporary choreography involved. It is a celebration."

Jannides, dance programme leader at Unitec from 1998 to 2007, is contributing his lighthearted but iconic Complicated legs dance in a pair of jeans and sneakers, which was premiered in 1978 in Limbs. Originally a solo, it has expanded to 14 dancers on this outing.

The very beginnings of Unitec's dance programme can be traced back to Limbs' days. It was the closure of Limbs' community dance classes, alongside the demise of acting classes at the old Performing Arts Centre when Theatre Corporate folded, that provoked the establishment of the Performing Arts School and an alternative dance training.

Wendy Preston and Maggie Eyre became the new school's artistic directors, co-managing a fulltime dance programme alongside Alison East and Raewyn Thorburn.

The two-year programme began its days in Newton Lodge in Upper Queen St, while a raft of community classes took over the old Orange Ballroom in nearby Newton Rd.

The dance course ran from May to September and students paid fees of $2500. With no government funding, the course's viability was precarious, but by 1991 NZQA approval had been granted, and the qualification became a National Diploma of Contemporary Dance.

The course then ran from February to November, with government subsidies, including student fees and allowances, and new premises in a former TV studio in Ponsonby.

Unitec acquired the Performing Arts School in 1994, merging it with its existing TV and film production programmes, to form the new School of Performing and Screen Arts.

Raewyn Whyte and Alison East were co-directors of the dance programme from 1995 and all classes moved to the Unitec campus, with the new school led by Bridget Marsh. Development of a three-year Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts degree programme began immediately, and came on stream in 1998.

Garry Trinder was appointed dance programme leader in 1997, followed by Jannides.

The first Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts (Contemporary Dance) graduates, in June 1999, included Malia Johnston, Kelly Nash, Maria Dabrowska, Moss Paterson, Jack Gray and Yu Fen Wang, all familiar names in Auckland's dance scene.

Johnston's work chosen for the celebrations is the very masculine Crash Test Dummies, which premiered last year in Footnote's Made in New Zealand season.

Neil Ieremia, founder and director of Black Grace and also a graduate of the Unitec course, is showing the percussive PatiPati, which consists of movement segments from previous works on several Pacific themes.

Michael Parmenter, who has had a long association with the course as teacher and mentor, and who is now honoured as the programme's Adjunct Professor, is represented by his work Colony, a "dialogue between personal and collective experience". Shona McCullagh has an equally long association with Unitec, and her contributed work is Those Left, a dark and melancholy study created after a visit to Wroclaw, in Poland, not far from Auschwitz.

The 60-strong student body all auditioned for roles in A Life Between Us, says Griggs, with the five choreographers selecting who they wanted independently. The Unitec course has always aimed to turn out dance artists able to sustain a freelance career and there is a strong emphasis on choreographic training.

What: A Life Between Us: Unitec celebrates 21 years of dance

Where and when: Maidment Theatre, November 18-21