Finders Keepers - a new work by Raewyn Hill

Thursday, 23 April 2009

 

FINDERS KEEPERS

Dancers: Trisha Dunn and Jessica Jefferies
Photographer: Michaela Cox

 

Raewyn Hill and Dancers will premiere a new contemporary dance work, Finders Keepers, on Tuesday April 28 at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka, supported by New Work funding from Creative New Zealand. Raewyn created Finders Keepers in New Zealand over December 08 and January 09.

 

Set to excerpts from Jordi Savall’s Lachrimae Caravaggio and inspired by the men who take their caged songbirds to the Yuen Po Street Bird Park ( Hong Kong ) to socialize them, Finders Keepers looks at the intricacies of family relationships and explores how love can ultimately clip the wings of personal freedom.

 

Conceptually Finders Keepers considers the ideas of physical and emotional possession and the social demands to ‘sing our best songs’ for others. Using the songbirds as a reference and inspiration, choreographically Finders Keepers displays material and creative concepts that capture both the beauty and vulnerability of the caged birds, expressing the intimate balance between the keeper and the kept, the lover and the loved.

 

"I found this concept of socializing caged birds somewhat strange, beautiful and utterly disturbing," says Hill. "The work is based around a man who brings a 'bird' into his home and the dynamics that then unfold between his wife and his son. Three dancers and one actor play out a funny, poignant story."

 

Finders Keepers has a stellar cast of international performers, Trisha Dunn (Tasdance - Australia, A dance for the forgotten), Adam Gardiner (Auckland Theatre Company, Angels with Dirty Feet), Cho Tak Po (Hong Kong, Vespers, Til Death do us Part) and newcomer Jessica Jefferies, a final year student from New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington. It also marks the return of Raewyn’s creative team, dramaturg Duncan Sarkies (When Love Comes Calling, White, Night, Angels with Dirty Feet, We are gathered here today) and lighting designer Martyn Roberts (When Love Comes Calling, White).

 

In 2001, Hill established Soapbox Productions (now Raewyn Hill and Dancers) as a vehicle for her growing choreographic voice. The company has toured consistently throughout New Zealand and has developed eight critically acclaimed full-length works, When Love Comes Calling, White, Night, Angels with Dirty Feet, Here lies within, We are gathered here today, A dance for the forgotten and Finders Keepers alongside several smaller commissioned works, notably Nest, Trio 1 and 2, How ugly is the duckling?, In time of Flight and Forgotten for Footnote Dance Company, Hanging between heaven and earth for New Zealand School of Dance, An ocean of tears for Royal New Zealand Ballet, Vespers, Til Death do us Part for The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

 

Raewyn premiered a new contemporary dance work Vespers at the inaugural Asia Pacific Dance Platform, as a part of the 37th Hong Kong Arts Festival in February 2009. The inclusion of her work in one of the world's premier Arts Festivals signalled a landmark in her career. Continuing to build her international profile, Raewyn is the first New Zealander to be awarded a prestigious Cite International des Arts residency in Paris; which she will take up from August 2009. As well, Raewyn is honoured to have been invited to create a graduation work in 2010 for New York’s prestigious performing arts conservatoire The Juilliard School.

Until July 2009 Raewyn is the Artist in Residence for the School of Dance at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.