Limbs Dance Company
Encyclopedia
Limbs Dance Company was established in Auckland, New Zealand
in 1978, emerging from a lively whirl of artistic and cultural activities in the country's largest and most multicultural city. Founding directors Chris Jannides
(1977 - 1979) and Mary Jane O'Reilly (1978-86), together with dancers Adrian Batchelor, Mark Baldwin, Kilda Northcott, Shona Wilson and Lynda Amos, intended to develop new contemporary dance choreographies which incorporated the talents of other artists, such as costume and set designers, musicians and composers. Their goal was to communicate, entertain and share their love of dancing, to show that modern dance could be enjoyable and exciting. They hoped to attract a wider audience for their particular brand of modern dance, which they saw as being quite different from that offered by their Wellington counterparts, Impulse Dance Theatre.
The Limbs company began as a group of friends working together in 1977 while most were receiving the unemployment benefit. They made their debut performance in August 1977 to a student audience with a series of short, succinct dances, which made use of humour, choreographed by Jannides and O'Reilly. They received a standing ovation and went on to perform in parks and fashion parades, schools and rock music festivals. nightclubs and
on television, all the while gathering an every-increasing local following.
Their first tour was during 1978-79 with the support of NZ Students Arts Council.
Cath Cardiff was artistic director from 1986 - 1989, when the company ceased operations.
Mark Baldwin, who helped establish the company, is now Artistic Director of the Rambert Dance Company
.
The company worked with composers including Don McGlashan
, Wayne Laird, Ivan Zagni and Jan Preston. Music used included New Zealand bands: Split Enz
- I Got You and Shark Attack, Hello Sailor
- Big Bump and songs by Coconut Rough
. Other dances were choreographed to music by, for example, Oscar Peterson
, Miles Davis
, Kraftwerk
, Talking Heads
, Phil Manzanera
, JS Bach
and Stravinsky
.
New Zealand
band Spats
appeared on stage with the dance company at the Maidment Arts Centre in 1978. There is film of a piece called New Wave Goodbye with the band.
The company records are currently in Auckland
City Library.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in 1978, emerging from a lively whirl of artistic and cultural activities in the country's largest and most multicultural city. Founding directors Chris Jannides
Chris Jannides
Chris Jannides is a founding dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Limbs Dance Company in Auckland, New Zealand....
(1977 - 1979) and Mary Jane O'Reilly (1978-86), together with dancers Adrian Batchelor, Mark Baldwin, Kilda Northcott, Shona Wilson and Lynda Amos, intended to develop new contemporary dance choreographies which incorporated the talents of other artists, such as costume and set designers, musicians and composers. Their goal was to communicate, entertain and share their love of dancing, to show that modern dance could be enjoyable and exciting. They hoped to attract a wider audience for their particular brand of modern dance, which they saw as being quite different from that offered by their Wellington counterparts, Impulse Dance Theatre.
The Limbs company began as a group of friends working together in 1977 while most were receiving the unemployment benefit. They made their debut performance in August 1977 to a student audience with a series of short, succinct dances, which made use of humour, choreographed by Jannides and O'Reilly. They received a standing ovation and went on to perform in parks and fashion parades, schools and rock music festivals. nightclubs and
on television, all the while gathering an every-increasing local following.
Their first tour was during 1978-79 with the support of NZ Students Arts Council.
Mark Baldwin, who helped establish the company, is now Artistic Director of the Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company, is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it would exert a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, it continues to be one of the...
.
The company worked with composers including Don McGlashan
Don McGlashan
Don McGlashan is a New Zealand musician and songwriter who has been a member of bands such as The Plague, From Scratch, The Whizz Kids, Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, The Mutton Birds and, from 2009, The Bellbirds. He composed several pieces for the Limbs Dance Company...
, Wayne Laird, Ivan Zagni and Jan Preston. Music used included New Zealand bands: Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
- I Got You and Shark Attack, Hello Sailor
Hello Sailor (band)
Hello Sailor was a New Zealand pop/rock band originally formed in 1975.- History :The band's history is long and complicated, with guitarist/vocalists Dave McArtney and Harry Lyon having first played together in the mid 1960s. After several lineup changes, the band released its first album, Hello...
- Big Bump and songs by Coconut Rough
Coconut Rough
Coconut Rough were a short-lived New Zealand new wave/pop band formed in 1982.Despite their 1983 first single, "Sierra Leone", hitting the top five, and the band being named Most Promising Group of the Year at that year's RIANZ Awards they split up in 1984.-History:The band was formed in 1982 by...
. Other dances were choreographed to music by, for example, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...
, JS Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
.
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
band Spats
The Spats
Spats were a New Zealand band . Members included Fane Flaws, Peter Dasent, Bruno Lawrence and Tony Backhouse. Spats worked with the Limbs Dance Company, a contemporary dance company based in New Zealand...
appeared on stage with the dance company at the Maidment Arts Centre in 1978. There is film of a piece called New Wave Goodbye with the band.
The company records are currently in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
City Library.