Time Weaver
World Premiere 2021, Toi Whakaari Theatre
Commissioned by New Zealand School of Dance
Choreographer Loughlan Prior
Composer Phillip Glass
Video footage: Jeremy Brick
Photography: Stephen A'Court
Program Notes:
Flowing, unfolding, becoming; snaking through space in a mortal dance with the cosmos.
The hypnotic, and seemingly infinite, arrangement of Glass’s work for harp by Lavinia Meijer, is symbolic of our relationship with the continuum of time and the perceived linear passage to which we live our lives. In Time Weaver, two figures are captured curving, sculpting, playing, ‘living’ in a monotonous duet of foreverness. An ouroboros.
If the stage light was never to fade, I like to think that the dance could go on forever.
Acknowledgements:
Creating this work in 2021 has been a beautiful and rewarding process, especially given the tumultuous year that’s been. I would like to extend my gratitude to the wonderful dancers - Louise Camelbeke, Rosie Owls, Zachary Healy and Elijah Holmes, who have given so much of themselves to the duet, and risen to the technical and artistic challenges embedded within our creation. A very special thank you to rehearsal assistant Medhi Angot for your help in the studio and to Garry Trinder for the special invitation to work with the students of NZSD.
Clear-cut, technically demanding and rigorously choreographically nuanced. Set to Philip Glass’ beautiful Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis Two, Flowing, the ephemeral Time Weaver contrasts extension and length with confidently-manipulated fractured line, tension and risk. - Brigitte Knight DANZ
A meticulous performance that requires sophisticated communication to combine sensitive support with meticulous line.” - Lynn Pringle, Dominion Post
Strong extended lines and controlled partnering are compellingly woven in time.”
- Deirdre Tarrant, Theatre review
The dance comes to seem like the slow-motion capture of an exquisite flower opening— lotus, passionfruit, desert cactus, water lily perhaps—such as David Attenborough would be pleased to have commissioned.
- Jennifer Shennan, Michelle Potter… On Dancing