NZIAF - Birds with Skymirrors

Date(s):

29 February 2012 - 1 March 2012

Venue:

St James

Globally-acclaimed and created by one of New Zealand’s greatest living artists, this urgent and provocative dance theatre work returns home for its New Zealand premiere.

On the Pacific island of Tarawa, Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio took an encounter with birds flying with glittering pieces of plastic waste in their beaks as the vision to create this extraordinary and epic work.

Hailed by the French newspaper Le Figaro as one of the greats of modern dance alongside the legendary Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham, Lemi Ponifasio’s style is a distinctive language of stage imagery: poetic, stark, hypnotic, and taut with concentration. Dancers seem to float across a darkened stage, their movements, brief and sharp like animals or birds, executed with masterful precision.

Co-produced by a host of international presenters, Birds With Skymirrors is a timely reflection of our connection to the Earth and our incredible power to protect or destroy what surrounds us.