Friday 10 June 2011

The founder of Touch Compass Dance Trust, Catherine Chappell, has been awarded the 2011 Creative New Zealand Choreographic Fellowship.

Worth $65,000, it is the largest choreographic award or fellowship available in New Zealand and provides the resources and time for established choreographers to commit to a period of investigation, experimentation and research.

Auckland-based, Catherine Chappell's professional dance career spans 25 years and a variety of roles, including dancer, teacher, choreographer, mentor and producer. Following on from a strong background in contact improvisation, Catherine established Touch Compass in 1997 – New Zealand's first integrated Dance Company for mixed-ability performers. From the first performance, Touch Compass has developed 'aerial work', which sees wheelchairs and dancers suspended and swinging above the stage. This work has earned Touch Compass the reputation of being a pioneering and ingenious contemporary dance company.

Alan Sorrell, Chair of the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand, says Catherine Chappell's selection reflects the importance of accomplished artists having the opportunity to experiment within their chosen medium.

"We are pleased to award Catherine Chappell the 2011 Creative New Zealand Choreographic Fellowship as she has contributed such innovation to contemporary dance in New Zealand," Mr Sorrell says. "This fellowship is designed to recognise excellence and experience while offering the recipient the creative freedom to explore new work over a one-year period."

Catherine plans to use the Fellowship for a period of concentrated professional development, researching and developing a new aerial dance form combining bungee and contact improvisation. She will also work with other international companies practicing in this area.

"This fellowship offers an invaluable chance to rejuvenate my ideas, explore new knowledge and refresh my skills in this area", says Catherine.

"I feel excited and highly motivated by the opportunities ahead and believe that I can bring to New Zealand's dance industry, and Touch Compass, a more enriched and invigorated performance product."

Previous recipients of this Fellowship are: Shona McCullagh (2004), Douglas Wright (2005), Michael Parmenter (2006), Lemi Ponifasio (2008) and Daniel Belton (2009).

Note to editor: Contact improvisation is form of dance in which physical contact provides the starting point for improvised movement.

For more information please contact:
Helen Isbister
Creative New Zealand
04 473 0187

The north, south, east and west of touch

Dominion Post, Friday 10 June, 2011

A review by Jennifer Shennan

This intrepid little company combining dancers with and without disability visiting from Auckland presents a trio of contrasting works in a coherently themed programme.

The performance offers insight into the very nature of dance via physics of movement coupled with determination of spirit. The choreography is mature, edgy, and keeps our unflagging attention throughout.

Fastidious preparation has always been a hallmark of Touch Compass' work. It has to be – so much is at stake. That's not because dancers in wheelchairs are travelling and spinning at speed, or because of the huge challenge to find balance when gravity and physical asymmetry are the givens.

Rather, it is because the company, under visionary director Catherine Chappell, has always set sights on the aesthetics, expressive and affective aspects of performance, never on the mere display or demonstration of abilities.

Grotteschi, Susanne Cowan's astonishing choreography, evokes a work of Hieronymus Bosch. Hell and Heaven are there, and surely an entomologist set this tango. Cowan and Adrian Smith in quirky rhythms and broken angles release superb lines of epaulement in the upper body.

Six, by Jeremy Nelson, takes the numerical and spins it from arithmetic into geometry. Scores of abstract patterns, beautifully phrased, shape encounters between the cast – Catherine Chappell with the laid back grace of her mastery of contact improvisation, Daniel King as trustworthy as a strong tree in the wind, Cowan and Alisha McLennan leaning through elegant easy curves, Julia Milsom and Adrian Smith in fine clarity of movement.

Carol Brown's Slip, is an unconventional work of quiet yet real power, with dancers telling something of themselves. In lyrics powerfully performed by Tracy Z, the cast of six, here including Kerryn McMurdo and Jesse Johnstone-Steele, sketch a narrative that gives a poignant cameo to what the whole evening is about. McLennan's high-flying sequence is superb.

My companion has been watching dance performance for close to 70 years. This evening moved him more than any other he can recall.

The performers take their exit not through the conventional side wings but in a gap in the back curtain, like a travelling troupe of players in search of their next audience. Try to be in it.

EXQUISITE, BREATHTAKING, PROVOCATIVE

Touch Compass presents TRIPLE BILL in Hastings and Wellington in June Choreographed by Carol Brown, Jeremy Nelson and Suzanne Cowan

Artist Director Catherine Chappell comments: "The success of the Triple Bill season in 2010 was no doubt one contributing factor for Creative NZ in accepting the Company onto the Totara Leadership programme beginning in 2012. After 14 years of project funding all the hard work has paid off and audiences are flocking to see the new direction the company has taken."

"...from the company with strong choreographic work that could sit anywhere in the world from London to New York!" Jack Gray, Theatre view

Touch Compass, NZ's first integrated dance Company, combining dancers with and without a disability, presents a compelling new season by internationally acclaimed artists. Featuring Carol Brown's SLIP I'm not falling, I'm just hanging on for as long as you hold me, and Jeremy Nelson's SIX, the triple bill is anchored by Suzanne Cowan's highly acclaimed work Grotteschi,"

Evocative original music by New Zealand composers David Watson (SIX), Russell Scoones (SLIP), and Charlotte Rose (Grotteschi) fully support and complement the works.

"Carol Brown's SLIP was remarkable, mixing private narratives with a penetrating analysis of vulnerability, identity and the strength of community." Francesca Horsley, Danz Quarterly

Suzanne Cowan's highly acclaimed Grotteschi, "the standout highlight of Tempo 08's opening week...." explores the myth of the classical body and grotesque body. In Carol Brown's SLIP dancers write their greatest hits, dress up, dress down and dance out their songs. Jeremy Nelson's SIX explores and discovers how apparent limitations are keys to open doors.

"...the performances signalled the arrival of Touch Compass as one of New Zealand's most talented and creative dance companies." - Francesca Horsley, Danz Quarterly

Triple Bill plays

HASTINGS / Hawkes Bay Opera House / 7.30pm, Sat 4 June 2011

WELLINGTON / Te Whaea Theatre / 7.30pm, 9, 10, 11 June, 2pm, 11 June 2011 (public matinee)

Tickets $35 - $15 on sale 26 April, 2011

Bookings through Ticket direct 0800 4 ticket (0800 244 244) www.ticketdirect.co.nz

Media contact: Artistic Director - Catherine Chappell 021 989 447

14 April 2011

Touch Compass wheelchair dancers fly high with Creative New Zealand investment

The Touch Compass dance company which aims to change the way New Zealanders think about dance - and who can dance - has been granted leadership investment funding by Creative New Zealand.

Touch Compass will be in Wellington and Hastings in June to present its innovative contemporary dance-theatre show Triple Bill performed by dancers with and without disabilities.

In its 14 years of operation, Touch Compass has astounded audiences here and in Australia with its choreography and aerial work which sees wheelchairs and dancers suspended and performing above the stage as well as on it.

The quantum of the new Arts Leadership Investment will be announced in September.

"This is the first time the company has been awarded annual Creative New Zealand funding. It is a wonderful recognition of the professional and ground-breaking work Catherine Chappell and the dancers have done since we started in 1997," Touch Compass general manager Karen Fraser Payne said.

"We are a charitable trust and our vision is a society where all people are highly valued and where disabled and non-disabled dancers of all cultures seamlessly integrate in contemporary dance programmes that resonate profoundly with audiences."

Triple Bill raises the bar by presenting three large scale performance works. These are the latest works by internationally acclaimed New Zealand choreographers, Jeremy Nelson (Six) and Carol Brown (Slip), and one of the highlights of the Tempo New Zealand Festival of Dance 2008, Grotteschi choreographed by Suzanne Cowan. Slip received a 2010 NZ Listener Arts Touchstone Award.

Creative New Zealand Arts Leadership Investment Programme

The Arts Leadership Investment Programme is a recent Creative New Zealand initiative with the purpose of investing in well-run, financially sound arts organisations that play key roles in creating, presenting, distributing, or encouraging participation in high-quality New Zealand arts experiences.

Twenty-two organisations have been confirmed as recipients in the leadership programme with three, including Touch Compass, being new to the longer-term funding offered by Creative New Zealand.

Two investment programmes - Arts Leadership and Arts Development - take effect from 2012. They replace the existing Recurrent Funding Programme and the contestable Arts Investment and Sector Investment programmes.

For further information, visit www.touchcompass.org.nz and www.creativenz.govt.nz.

Media Release - 28 June 2010

For Immediate Release

TRIPLE BILL

SLIP I'm not falling I'm just hanging on for as long as you hold me , SIXand Grotteschi

A trilogy of works from New Zealand's first integrated (disabled and non-disabled) dance company Touch Compass charts a season of distinctly New Zealand dance with Triple Bill, playing from August 18^th at Auckland's Concert Chamber, THE EDGE.

Inspiring and entertaining NZ and Australian audiences with their dance works from its small beginnings 13 years ago, the company has toured nationally and to Australia and have worked alongside many of NZ leading dance practitioners. This year the company is raising the bar - to present a larger scale work with two internationally acclaimed NZ choreographers and one of the highlights of Tempo New Zealand Festival of Dance 2008.

Trained in London and having cut his teeth in New York, Jeremy Nelson's works have been seen across the world, from the USA to Southern Europe and beyond. His latest work, SIX, is inspired by both the geometrical and mathematical qualities of the numeral; six-pack, sixth sense, six-pointed star, six degrees of separation, it's a variety that references from the abstract. SIX's limitations become keys in which doors are opened to undiscovered rooms. With costumes designed and partially constructed in New York by long time collaborator Luis Lara Malvacais, the composer is also New York based, Kiwi David Watson.

Carol Brown, formerly artist in residence at The Place Theatre London, has had an international presence through collaborations, commissions and teaching in the UK. In 2003 she received the Ludwig Forum international prize for innovation. She debuts her latest work SLIP; working with frequent collaborator, composer Russell Scoones, who currently works at Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre. Dancers write their greatest hits, dress up, dress down and dance out their songs and between the flying and falling, the scenes of suspension expose the intimacy of support and the possibilities of surrender.

Anchoring the trilogy of performances is the return of Suzanne Cowan's highly acclaimed Grotteschi, which the NZ Herald cited as "the standout highlight of Tempo 08's opening week....". The enthralling duet, the gothic horror tells the story of a spider woman and her "feeding" habits, both using and devouring her acolyte, combining riveting movements with dramatic lighting to embrace a range of tempo and mood changes.

Challenging perceptions about who can dance, Touch Compass celebrates the creative talents that diverse artists bring to this through provoking season.

Triple Bill plays
18 - 21 August 2010, 7pm (Saturday matinee - 2pm)

Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE

Tickets: $35 - $25 (plus booking fees)

Bookings through THE EDGE® - visit www.buytickets.co.nz or call 0800 BUYTICKETS

Mystery donor offers lifeline to unique dance company

Media Release - September 2008

World-renowned integrated dance company Touch Compass desperately needs a permanent home - but can't find a suitable building in central Auckland despite the financial backing of an anonymous donor with deep pockets.

Founded in 1997 by dancer and choreographer Catherine Chappell, Touch Compass is a unique New Zealand dance company in which dancers with and without disabilities work together to create thought provoking dance shows. The company's patron is actor Lisa Chappell, Catherine's sister and former star of TV show 'McLeod's Daughters'.

A year ago, the company's 10th anniversary tour was featured on TVNZ's Sunday programme, which attracted the attention of a well-heeled benefactor whose identity is unknown even to Catherine Chappell herself.

"We have no idea who they are but they've committed to a substantial donation for a permanent Touch Compass venue for the next 3 years, if we can find somewhere suitable. The problem is: we can't find a building that meets our special requirements," says Catherine. "This is the sort of rescue package that is unheard-of in our cash-strapped sector of the arts and we desperately need to take advantage of this offer before they lose interest."

The company needs a building that is accessible for people with disabilities, with high ceilings, sturdy beams to suspend dancers from, natural light, adequate parking, and space enough for two rehearsal rooms and other facilities.  While the search continues, Touch Compass is rehearsing in three different hired or borrowed venues spread throughout Auckland - such as the Point Chevalier Bowling Clubrooms - but none is ideal and moving from place to place is disruptive and time consuming, particularly for the disabled performers.

"A permanent studio will make it easier for Touch Compass to attract corporate sponsorship, build up a larger body of work, perform more often, and help fund the company through aerial workshops and corporate work," says Catherine.

Despite not having a permanent base, Touch Compass will present two spectacular new dance/theatre works from 1 to 4 October 2008 at Auckland's Maidment Theatre. The new season's works are Harmonious Oddity, a stunning new dance/theatre work by Pedro Ilgenfritz and Catherine Chappell, and Grotteschi, a powerful duet by Suzanne Cowan.

"Dreamlike and challenging, Harmonious Oddity features surreal scenes played out by dancers not only on their feet, but also on wheels and suspended in mid-air in a wacky and humorous work that will transport you into another realm," says Catherine. "Grotteschi explores the myth of the classical body and grotesque body, how each contains the other, and how they ultimately transcend any categorisation."

Joining the company this year are Brazilian actor, theatre director, playwright, lecturer, and physical theatre expert Pedro Ilgenfritz, and lighting designer Jenny Pullar whose work includes designs for 191 different productions in 12 countries.

10th Anniversary Tour 2007

Media Release

Touch Compass dances around North Island for 10th birthday celebration

Renowned New Zealand dance company Touch Compass celebrates its 10th anniversary in Auckland from October 17, 2007 with a four centre North Island tour. The company's most memorable works have been selected for this retrospective showcase, including the outstanding and critically acclaimed work - Lusi's Eden. Over the last ten years audiences have been drawn to the beauty and skill of this ground breaking company, unique for its integration of professional dancers and choreographers with and without a disability.

Highly regarded for their innovation and "flying", which sees wheelchairs and dancers suspended and swinging above the stage, the company creates work to challenge public perception of "what dance is and who is a dancer". The work that has resulted has earned Touch Compass the reputation as a pioneering and ingenious contemporary dance company.

A decade ago, artistic director and founder Catherine Chappell returned home from the United States to experiment with her newly learned contact improvisation skills. Touch Compass was created in the same year and in 1997 the first Touch Compass season proudly premiered at Auckland's Maidment Theatre. 

Lusi's Eden is a theatrical journey which sees the heroine Lusi Faiva trade her electric wheelchair for a harness, to fly her to freedom across the stage and high above the audience. This physical and metaphorical flight of fancy inspires and uplifts audiences, who identify with the liberation of spirit which is captured by this poignant and exuberant work.