page 13

Arts Festival Pictorial

AT the Modern Dance Council meeting of 1969 Arts Festival the individual universities' dance groups were affiliated as the "NZUSA Dance Theatre". This is a move towards greater involvement and activity within and between the universities.

This year's dance programme consisted of three interesting workshops, for both performer and observer, leading to two modern dance concerts. Gaylene Wilson of the Otago University Dance Theatre and Paddy Grant of Auckland University gave classes in dance technique and a mime workshop was conducted by Peter Swain of Canterbury University.

The two concerts were of a superior standard to last year's performances, possibly because of John Casserly's nationwide influence in modern dance. Taking the form of lecture demonstrations the concerts of contributions from Otago, Auckland and Victoria universities. The emphasis was on creative dance but included a mime theatre piece and a thrilling jazz improvisation by Gaylene Wilson.

Dancing in Victoria's item were Deborah Pearson, Bill Evans and Patricia Hall. "For Three" was a chance choreography in which each dancer had an individual sequence of movements randomly selected from six basic phrases. The electronic music for the item was composed by Elizabeth Durban, a music student at Victoria..

On September 11, 12, 13, the New Zealand Ballet Company will be performing two modern dance choreographies; "Collage II", by John Casserly, and "Judith", in the Memorial Theatre. These will be inspiring performances and introductions to modern dance for Victoria University students.