To the music of Tempo

By BERNADETTE RAE


Auckland's Tempo Dance Festival has come of age this year and looks well on the way to fulfilling the organisers' aim of rivalling the best in Australasia.

The 17-day festival openstomorrow.

Last year, Tempo - previously known as the Auckland Dance Festival - was strong in community events but lacked professional substance. "But the whole dance community has embraced Tempo as its own festival this year," says festival director Sonya Bright.

There are seven categories: world dance; contemporary dance; community events; dance on screen; youth dance; fringe; and extras, ranging from a visit from the maestro of the Egyptian drum, Hossam Ramzy, and queen of the belly dance, Serena Ramzy, to the best from New Zealand's contemporary dance scene.

Buffy and Bimbo bring the art of drag into the limelight with performances and a workshop.

There is salsa, tango and Spanish flamenco, and competitions, a conference and workshops.

* There could not be a better opening for a dance festival than Michael Parmenter's Nightingale Fever, a 75-minute solo work from one of the country's finest performers, on the subject of how dance is made.

It will be staged at Tapac, Western Springs, on October 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8. It is a narrative work, mostly talk with some dance sections.

Parmenter proved his ability in this genre with his 1995 A Long Undressing, which revealed the "defining features" of his own life, including his battle with HIV.

Nightingale Fever is based on Parmenter's experiences when creating Empty Chairs for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2001.

The process led him to examine the whole creative journey.

"My first experience of working with the RNZB, making Seven Deadly Sins, was all positive," Parmenter says. "But Empty Chairs is a smaller work for just four dancers, so there was more intimacy and emotion - a more detailed choreography. It is an ironic and witty look at all that."

Two years ago Parmenter left New Zealand, reportedly saying he could not survive here artistically.

He says that report was exaggerated, although admits he went through a bleak period because the success of Jerusalem in 1999 was not followed by funding support.

He says his main reason for leaving was to be able to take medication for HIV that was not available in New Zealand, and to work in opera.

Since his return last year to work with final-year students from Unitec's dance course, Parmenter has found a fresh cycle of opportunity and is enjoying what he calls an Indian summer of health and energy.

He has a new work, Tristan and Isolde, with Taane Mete, to be staged in Auckland at the end of October. Next year, shortly after Parmenter's 50th birthday, there will be a retrospective national tour, with 16 of New Zealand's best dancers returning from overseas to take part. * New Zealand's Raewyn Hill brings her acclaimed Angels with Dirty Feet, a study of drug addiction, to the Herald Theatre on October 13 to 22.

Hill, vehemently against drug-taking, was inspired by Australian author Luke Davies' novel Candy. Hill undertook extensive research and visited detox and rehab units.

Angels with Dirty Feet neither glorifies the high, the "heroin chic", nor descends into the grit and repulsion of Trainspotting, Hill says. It focuses on the vulnerability of people caught up in addiction - not just the addicts but their families and friends - and on the strength and courage of those who recover and re-enter society.

Melding the work and the different disciplines of her seven actors and dancers was a challenge, but Hill is happy with the result.

* Atamira Dance Collective's contribution is Ngai Tahi 32 (Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, October 4-7 and 9), choreographed by Louise Potiki Bryant, is on the subject of whakapapa and follows the journey of Wiremu Potiki. The work takes its name from a 1848 file in the Ngai Tahu Corporation office in Otago.

Potiki, one of Bryant's ancestors, emerges as a kaumatua with an entrepreneurial bent, who busked with a spirited haka and then went to the pub. The work weaves together history, genealogy, myth and imagination.

Four of Maoridom's finest contemporary dancers perform in the work, which has a soundtrack by Paddy Free and electronic band Pitch Black plus a stunning set.


* Kanan Deobhakta performs The Masked Maiden: Tempest, Temperate and Temptress at the Centennial Theatre on October 1. It is a study of woman in all her roles and moods. Kanan dances in the classical Bharata Natyam and Odissi styles, often with a contemporary touch.

The Masked Maiden is a classical and solo work with themes from India's epic stories to illustrate the three dominant faces of a goddess.

"The stories are traditional," Kanan says, "but the message still applies today. Women still wear these masks ... are still expected to be all these things."

* Pointy Dog, formed by dancer and choreographer Ann Dewey as a youth dance company, will perform at Tapac from October 1 to 3.

Dewey and friend and colleague Elizabeth Kirk decided to explore the possibilities of a programme of work by mature dancers, and that led to Old Yeller. It will be staged at Tapac on October 15 and 16. Performers include Marianne Shultz, Lynn Pringle, Felicity Molloy, Linda Ashley, Briar Wilson and possibly Mary Jane O'Reilly, Vicky Kapo and Lusi Favola - all names with a distinguished ring.

"Older actresses bring a wealth of experience to their roles - think Judi Dench," Dewey says. "In dance, once the physical aspect begins to wane, people stop, and all that wonderful wisdom is lost. Older people dancing can be beautiful as long as they choose the right thing."

Tempo

Performance

*What: Tempo Dance Festival

*Where and when: Venues citywide, Oct 1-17