‘It’s fun to be around dancers,” says Gillian Ansell, violist in the New Zealand String Quartet. The group she co-founded is joining the New Zealand Dance Company for 100 Winds, Taupō Hau Rau (March 29-April 5), a fascinating, too-brief three-city Chamber Music New Zealand tour conceived and choreographed by NZDC artistic director Moss Te Ururangi Patterson.
“What [string players] do is very physical on a micro level, but dancers are physical on a macro level and it’s interesting dealing with that,” Ansell says.
For 100 Winds, which uses Lake Taupō and its winds to express Patterson’s thoughts about culture, politics and society, the quartet will get more macro than they’re used to. There is some talk of them standing, and possibly moving about, on stage, which sounds a bit like patting your head while rubbing your tummy. They’ve done it before, though, notably for the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s CACTI (2016).
“We twirled around a bit,” Ansell recalls. “I wouldn’t want to move very fast. You don’t want to disrupt your energy and focus, but it’s fine to do a measured movement.”
At least one physical element will definitely feature in 100 Winds. Patterson has prescribed Steve Reich’s minimalist standard Clapping Music, which is exactly what it sounds like. Is it wrong to expect musicians who’ve spent their entire lives perfecting string playing to discard their instruments and clap?
“Rhythm’s a huge part of what we do,” Ansell reasons. “And I often get students to put their instruments down and clap a rhythm, so we’re familiar with that.”
Less familiar is American minimalism. Its repetitions and quicksand shifts have never formed part of the NZSQ’s repertoire, and as well as Reich, the group will play Philip Glass’s fourth and fifth string quartets. Both are impressive works, particularly No 4, subtitled Buczak. It’s a hypnotic, occasionally harrowing listen, composed to commemorate the Fluxus-adjacent artist Brian Buczak, who died of an Aids-related illness in 1987. A bit dark, isn’t it?
“I think Moss has to have music he knows he can choreograph to,” explains Ansell. “The feeling and energy in Glass suit the movement of the lake and the movement of the wind, and he could relate that to the movement he imagined for the dancers.”
When Ansell speaks to the Listener, those dancers have already been working for some weeks, and the quartet is soon to travel to Auckland for five days of rehearsals. It’s a lot of work for just a small handful of performances.
“Yes, it’s a shame we’re only doing three,” says Ansell. “But, sometimes things get picked up for festivals and things. I’m not giving up hope on that.”
Chamber Music New Zealand, New Zealand Dance Company and New Zealand String Quartet, 100 Winds, Taupō Hau Rau, Auckland, March 29, Christchurch, April 3, Wellington, April 5.
