NZ dance company invited to perform in Holland

Leading New Zealand choreographer and award-winning writer Douglas Wright’s work rapt is set to be performed in The Hague at the prestigious Lucent Danstheater next April.

And his Douglas Wright Dance is initiating a fundraising drive to raise $35,000 towards the project.

rapt was commissioned by the Auckland Arts Festival and premiered at The Civic in 2011 and it was described by National Business Review as a monumental work which was contemporary dance at its most abstract.

“This is not the movement of the human body but the movements and the sounds of the everyday, the home and the street," it said. "It was a performance which tested and extended our encounter with dance, theatre and art installation.”

It was seen as a work which was densely packed, full of wit, despair, isolation, awakening and renewal, all linking to notions about ecology, the human condition and probably Wright's own personal journey.

While much of the performance was full of angst about isolation, loneliness and distance, there were sequences with a great deal of humour.

The invitation to perform is from one of the world’s largest dance festivals, Holland Dance, in conjunction with the programming arm of Lucent Danstheater, home to the world famous Netherlands Dance Theatre.

It is unique for a New Zealand dance company to get the chance to perform on such a prominent stage.

The invitation represents a rare opportunity to showcase the work of New Zealand’s most iconic and revered dance theatre artist. It has been 17 years since Wright’s seminal work Forever toured Europe to widespread critical and audience acclaim.

"We are thrilled to bring Douglas Wright back after many years to the dancing capital of The Netherlands, The Hague. rapt is a remarkable piece and strikingly different from anything our audiences are used to seeing in our part of the world. A true (re)discovery of a great artist in dance," say Samuel Wuersten, artistic director of Holland Dance, and Den Haag, from international programming at Lucent Danstheater.

A special crowd-funding initiative will go live today to help raise funds to cover a short fall on the Holland tour costs. The project has received major funding from Creative New Zealand through its International Presentation Fund.

However, the challenging economic environment and significant size and scale of rapt means the full cost of the remount rehearsal period and tour cannot be covered by performance fees and Creative NZ funding alone.

The Hague presentation provides a critical opportunity for further international market development for Wright and New Zealand’s best contemporary performing arts work. 

A co-ordinated effort will ensure as many key northern hemisphere presenters as possible attend the Dutch performances.

It is hard for artists here to sustain their work by operating only in the small New Zealand market.

“Influential presenters of avant-garde dance who are unlikely ever to see rapt performed in New Zealand will be invited to our Holland performances," Douglas Wright says.

"This may in turn lead to future international tours of rapt and other dances that are as yet unborn.”

Anyone interested can donate from as little as $10 by visiting http://www.pozible.com/rapt.

A number of donation tiers with special acknowledgement benefits have been created as a thank you to supporters.

These include personally signed Douglas Wright books through to an opportunity to attend a rehearsal of rapt in Auckland before the company leaves for Holland.