Birds With Skymirrors - NZIAF

Lemi Ponifasio / MAU (New Zealand)

Globally-acclaimed and created by one of New Zealand’s greatest living artists, this urgent and provocative dance 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 an artist who will be one of the greats 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. They appear to be one with the oppressive space surrounding them.

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.

Contains nudity.

Production: MAU
Co-production: Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Theater der Welt 2010 RUHR, spielzeit’europa Berliner Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, KVS Brussels, Holland Festival, Mercat de les Flors, DeSingel Antwerp, New Zealand International Arts Festival

Sponsored by New Zealand Listener

With support from Creative New Zealand