Nederlands Dans Theater’s Auckland Programme

Media release

24 February, 2016

Auckland Live Announces Nederlands Dans Theater’s Auckland Programme

Auckland Live is bringing Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) to Auckland for the first time this June, for an exclusive New Zealand season. This is a rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s finest contemporary dance companies at Auckland’s favourite theatre, The Civic, from 29 June to 2 July.

NDT’s Auckland programme comprises four works by choreographers admired the world over. Two of the pieces – Woke Up Blind and The Statement – premiered this month in The Hague, receiving five star reviews. Auckland will be the first city outside The Netherlands to experience these works.

Safe as Houses (Choreography by Sol Leon & Paul Lightfoot)

Woke Up Blind (Choreography by Marco Goecke)

The Statement (Choreography by Crystal Pite)

Stop-Motion (Choreography by Sol Leon & Paul Lightfoot)

Creative partners Leon and Lightfoot’s Safe as Houses is arguably one of the duo’s most ‘spiritual’ works. It stems from the ancient Chinese book of I Chingand is set to a soundtrack of Johann Sebastian Bach. It has been described as "The vanishing ballet” as dancers move around a circular wall.

The songs You and I and The Way Young Lovers Do by Jeff Buckley, who died tragically and young, are the inspiration for Marco Goecke’s new work, Woke Up Blind. The songs deal with love in different ways: the first is slow, with very stretched-out vocals; the second has fast, almost hectic guitar accompaniment. Like young lovers, dancers throw themselves into the unknown regardless of the consequences, driven by longing. In this work, Goecke has managed to reach the core of human emotions through pure, highly complex movement.

The Statement, by Crystal Pite, is a work that is very much set in our world and time. Four characters around a boardroom table are tasked by unseen powers to fuel a conflict in another country. In a battle for control, they face off against one another and ultimately must confront the morality of their actions.

The evening will be rounded off with NDT’s internationally acclaimed Stop-Motion, which premiered in 2014 in The Hague, The Netherlands. This critically acclaimed piece was created by León and Lightfoot for the NDT 1 repertoire. Set to melancholic music by Max Richter, seven dancers depict a process of farewell and transformation. This is reinforced by large screens that show delayed video projections, which includes Leon and Lightfoot’s daughter Saura.

Nederlands Dans Theater is recognised as one of the most prolific and creative contemporary dance companies in the world. Under artistic guidance of Paul Lightfoot and based in The Hague, NDT dancers perform for over 115,000 visitors annually in Europe, USA, Asia and Australia.

Since inception in 1959, NDT has built a rich repertoire of over 600 works by master choreographers such as Jiří Kylián and Hans van Manen, León and Lightfoot, associate choreographers Pite and Goecke, and high-profile guests such as Johan Inger, Gabriela Carrizo, Franck Chartier, Edward Clug, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman and Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar.

The multi-national company consists of 27 dancers from all over the world, varying in age between 24 and 41 years and each one excelling in their solo qualities.

The dancers of NDT are renowned for their versatility, astonishing technique and virtuosic expression. The company showcases multiple art forms alongside their stunning choreography, including visual art, music composition and innovative light and set designs, all the while developing new talent.

Artistic Director Lightfoot says, “From the moment I crossed the threshold of the Koningsstraat in The Hague in 1985, I knew this is a place for dance artists to grow. NDT has planted seeds in different gardens, which opened us up to innovative ideas and styles. For this you need dancers who are hungry and open minded. Every single NDT-dancer possesses a fabulous, classical based technique, but ultimately it’s about their extraordinary capacity to transform. Every season’s programmes include works of choreographers with a clear message: this is who I am, and this is my aesthetical dance and figurative language. I invite choreographers who can strike a certain atmosphere, emotion and essence the second the curtain opens, BAM, and who are leading in that area internationally.”

Sol León and Paul Lightfoot started creating work as a duo for NDT over 26 years ago. Together they have won many prestigious awards, including the Benois de la Danse and the Herald Archangel. They have been the house choreographers of NDT since 2002 and have created over fifty ballets together.

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite has been the Associate Choreographer with NDT since 2008. The ballet Plot Point, which Pite created for NDT 1 in 2010, was nominated for the prestigious dance award Benois de la Danse. Pite is also an Associate Dance Artist at Canada's National Arts Centre and at Sadler's Wells, London. Her ballets are perfomed by dance companies worldwide. In 2002, Pite founded her own company, Kidd Pivot, based in Vancourver, Canada.

Marco Goecke (Germany) made his first choreographic work in 2000, since then he has created over fourty works and is one of the world's most sought-after choreographers. Goecke was resident choreographer at the Stuttgart Ballet and the Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. He has created work for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Hamburg Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Leipzig Ballet and Zurich Ballet.

Tickets are now on sale through Ticketmaster.

www.aucklandlive.co.nz/ndt

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