Love by a circuitous route

By BERNADETTE RAE

Dance from the south makes a rare appearance in Auckland next week with an exquisite study of love and virginity, historical, spiritual, medieval and modern.

Circulus Antarcticus ranges in subject matter - interpreted with pre-Raphaelite flair - from Hildegard of Bingen and her 12th-century chants to the story of Queen Eleanor of Acquitaine, troubadors and the Crusades, and the pure and untouched splendour of the Antarctic landscape.

The work comes from senior choreographers Shona Dunlop-McTavish, of Dunedin, and Bronwyn Judge from Oamaru.

Dunlop-McTavish studied with Austrian Gertrude Bodenweiser in Europe and introduced her German Expressionist dance to New Zealand, an endeavour honoured with a Doctorate of Dance by Otago University.

Judge is a long-time pupil of Dunlop-McTavish and has been a respected solo performer, teacher and choreographer for 20 years.

Circulus Antarcticus, which comprises four dancers, including the 50-year-old Dunlop, a vocalist and a harpist, is just back from a successful self-funded tour in Europe, with performances in Germany, including Bingen, France and Switzerland.

"Going to Germany was easier than coming to Auckland," says Dunlop. "In Germany, people didn't expect so much of us. A small troupe far from home received lots of offers of help with promotion and logistics in Europe."

The New Zealand tour, without vocalist and harpist, includes Wellington, Christchurch and Oamaru, as well as the Auckland performances.

Circulus Antarcticus evolved through a number of synergistic events. In 2000 Judge was an Antarctic Fellow and remained inspired by that experience.

Dunlop-McTavish had long been interested in Hildegard of Bingen and had made a piece about her called A Feather on the Breath of God, which prompted Judge to visit Bingen on a trip to Germany.

Judge also met singer Ana Good, who was particularly interested in troubadour music and chants.

She heard the Antarctic "soundtrack" of Canterbury composer Chris Cree-Brown, an Antarctic Fellow, in 1999. She was also keen to put something back into the arts community.

"I have had lots of grants from Creative New Zealand. And the ongoing Circulus Antarcticus Dance Ensemble offers employment to at least a handful of the talented dance graduates who are being spewed out from a huge number of performing arts courses but who have no opportunity for work."

The result is a work in three parts, the first focusing on Hildegard, who, in the 12th century, was the first woman to have control of her own monastery and her own order of young nuns.

"Hildegard considered virginity as a state of grace to be prized and honoured," says Judge.

"Her nuns wore a circlet of gold on their heads, entwined with lilies and roses, as a symbol of virginity, and they danced and sang [considered important in the Benedictine order] with their hair loose."

In the 12th century, all women normally wore the face-framing wimple and veil we now associate only with religious orders.

Hildegard's nuns with their flowing tresses, adorned with jewels and flowers, were considered outlandish by society. Hildegard was not executed for these excesses only because of her high connections with the Inquisitorial powers.

The second part takes up the story of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, a contemporary of Hildegard, exploring her famous "courts of love", before moving on to the Crusades.

The third part features the virginal icescapes of Antarctica, with specially commissioned music by Cree-Brown.

Other music consists of traditional troubadour songs, the chants of Hildegard of Bingen, and modern compositions by Hamish Oliver and Gillian Whitehead.

Performance

* What: Circulus Antarcticus

* Where and when: St Matthew-in-the-City, November 24, 7.30pm; November 25, 12.15pm