Lost + Found [dances of exile]

Lost + Found is an homage to enduring creativity. Carol Brown (NZ) and Thomas Kampe (Ger/UK) with The New Zealand Dance Company take you through the depths of Q Theatre, Auckland CBD to discover the lost dances of 1930s Vienna. Inspired by the memories of New Zealand dance legend, Shona Dunlop-MacTavish when, as a 17 year old, she fled Nazi Europe with the Bodenwieser Tanzgruppe, Brown and Kampe together with collaborators Russell Scoones (sound) and Kasia Pol (design) return to the gestures, sounds and images of ausdruckstanz (dance of expression), reimagining past experiences of exiled dancers in the present.

Survival strategies, extreme states and the contingencies of exile emerge to punctuate the present.  Vibrating at the borders of memory, dancing through hidden and unknown spaces in the Q Theatre, Kampe and Brown are joined by Katie Rudd, Chrissy Kokiri, Xin Ji, Karl Tolentino, Maryam Bagheri Nesami and Kasina Campbell as they perform traces of ecstatic and eccentric dances. Shapes of the past, journeys of exile and creative resilience, gestures of hope and defiance Lost + Found [dances of exile] is a performance event for people on the move. Surfacing in the Q Theatre Bar, audiences witness Releasing her Archive, a new dance film reconvening relationships between dances of the past and the present.  Filmed by Meek Zuiderwyk at Wellesley STudios and edited and designed by Owa Barua in London, the film offers audiences unique angles on an artistic legacy that continues to have relevance today.  

The dancers of the New Zealand Dance Company bring to life the full-bodied physicalising of the Bodenwieser movement with clarity and spirit. Kasina Campbell and Maryam Bagheri are also both beautiful and engaging performers, offering show(wo)manship and passion […] a complete and uplifting cycle. Sorrow is a natural accompaniment to such an experience, and LOST + FOUND [dances of exile] acknowledges this. Yet the experience is not just a tour through loss, but also the discovery of new spaces, relationships, possibilities and realities that are created through displacement. Exile and escape are as relevant to our world today as they were in the 1940’s. Experiencing these themes through Bodenwieser’s narrative is not only a doorway to the past, but a way to connect to our global present, and a celebration of what is found, and is a way of experiencing Q unlike any other.

—Klein, C. (2018). Revitalisation and displacement. Theatreview.

Artistic Direction—Carol Brown
Movement Direction & Research—Thomas Kampe
Sound Design—Russell Scoones
Performance & Spatial Design—Kasia Pol
Video Design—Owa Barua
Videography—Meek Zuidervyk
Dramaturgy—Fiona Graham
Artistic Mentorship—Shona Dunlop MacTavishVideo Documentation—James HutchinsonPerformers—Thomas Kampe, Katie Rudd, Chrissy Kokiri, Xin Ji, Carl Tolentino, Maryam Bagheri Nesami, Kasina CampbellComissioned By—TEMPO Dance Festival

›Lost + Found [dances of exile]