BELLE premiered at the Aotearoa New Zealand of The Arts Feb 26th - March 6th 2022 - Click to read more

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Belle is a multimedia performance experience that harnesses the skills of nine dance and aerial artists from across Aotearoa.

BELLE is a visual and aural spectacle for the senses. It is a work that is underpinned by light design, where a meditation on what lies beyond is researched. A futurist approach to the inhabitation of aerial apparatus and choreography is explored. Our circadian rhythms mixed with our connection to ancestors play a role in the emotional tone underpinning the work.  

Our all-female cast celebrates female strength, agility and unity. This work has these performers inhabiting an aerial world - a meditation on the cosmos in choreographic form. It aims to connect our audience on an energetic level, igniting imaginations towards what lies beyond and the sense of possibility.  The choreographic material in the work has been designed in collaboration with the aerial artists and dancers.

Belle’s bespoke aerial apparatus are designed and choreographed by Jenny Ritchie. The collection of apparatus also includes the libellule - which was created by Swiss Performance artist Mädir Eugster (1955 - 2023) from Rigolo

Belle’s set and light design by Rowan Pierce collaborates with the laws of physics. The walls melt away - smoke particles carry light as if something otherworldly has been forced into material form.  This work collaborates and collides dance, aerial performance and circus with the art of light and light architecture.

Music is composed by Eden Mulholland in collaboration with  Anita Clark who performs live.  The composition explores cyclic, melodic textures that regenerate and continuously morph - it is playing  with the idea of evolution.  The layering of multiple time signatures is designed to give a feeling of constant motion.