Overview
The honourable team behind Touch Compass Dance Company are polishing off their latest work, Acquisitions. The inclusive dance team features both those with and without disability equally in their performances, with everyone dancing together in a fully integrated routine.
Their latest project consists of three parts curated by the company’s artistic director and winner of 2011’s Creative New Zealand Choreographic Fellowship, Catherine Chappell. The first part of the show is the debut of Undertide. The performance is a film and live work by acclaimed choreographers Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad, co-directors of the BodyCartography Project and probably best known for their deeply communicative piece, Super Nature. Undertide is equally as empathetic as their former success, and concentrates on the human body experience, and how as humans we perceive life from the inside out.
The second part of the show is a new work created by the dancers themselves, called Watching Windows. The dance plays around with the concept of limitations, both mental and physical, and how they contribute to a life. Audiences are taken on an exploratory journey from the perspective of one living with physical boundaries.
Lastly, the show wraps up with the DanceBox project. This element of the show consists of images and film illustrating the theme of dance. New Zealand film director Alyx Duncan, who also directed The Red House and Pandora, leads the project, demonstrating the roller coaster of life and emphasising those moments of revelation and true happiness that we experience. His aim is to 'exhibit a museum of life'.