Overview
Strike are New Zealand’s premiere percussion ensemble. They’ve been around for nearly twenty years, touring the world and performing their percussion on stages all over the place. You might remember their work from the Royal NZ Ballet or alongside Hayley Westenra at the Rugby World Cup, where they killed at the 2011 final. Now, their latest show, Between Zero and One is debuting in Auckland’s Q Theatre.
The show explores all elements of rhythm in a large scale percussion performance choreographed by talented New Zealand composer John Psathas, who has been working in music his whole life, choreographing award-winning performances, and even created the score behind the Athens Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. For this show, he has managed to capture rhythm from tribal beats, to smooth jazz, to dubstep, by combining the talented Strike percussionists with acclaimed international musicians and impressive visual effects. It’s not so much a percussion performance as a full-blown stage show that aims to wow.
Zero and One has received near unanimously positive feedback since its debut in 2014, having played in Christchurch, Dunedin and the New Zealand Arts Festivals. They’re hitting Auckland before jetting off to perform in China and elsewhere around the globe.