Douglas Wright (dancer)
Douglas Wright MNZM | |
---|---|
Born | Douglas James Wright 14 October 1956 Tuakau, New Zealand |
Died | 14 November 2018 Auckland, New Zealand | (aged 62)
Occupation(s) | Dancer, choreographer, poet |
Years active | 1980–2008 |
Career | |
Former groups | Limbs Dance Company, Paul Taylor Company, Douglas Wright Dance Company |
Douglas James Wright
Biography
Wright was born in Tuakau, South Auckland, in 1956.[4] From 1980 to 1983 he danced with the Limbs Dance Company and choreographed a number of works on the company[5] before travelling to New York where he danced with the Paul Taylor Company, 1983–1987 and London with DV8 Physical Theatre, 1988. Returning to New Zealand in 1989, he formed the Douglas Wright Dance Company, with which he created more than 30 major works, touring New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
In the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, Wright was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to dance.[6]
In 2000 Wright received one of five inaugural Arts Laureate awards from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand and in 2003 he was the subject of an award-winning feature-length documentary film, Haunting Douglas, directed by Leanne Pooley for Spacific Films.
With the launch of Laughing Mirror, Wright announced his retirement from dance. Subsequently, however, during 2010 he workshopped material towards a new major group work commissioned for
Wright died 14 November 2018, aged 62, from cancer.[9]
Published works
He wrote two volumes of semi-fiction/semi-autobiography, Ghost Dance (Penguin, 2004 – Montana Awards Best First Book of Non-Fiction, 2004) and Terra Incognito (2006), and also hosted an inaugural one-man exhibition of his paintings and multimedia sculptures.
Choreographic works
- 1981 – Back Street Primary (poetry, J Frame; mus. Talking Heads), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1982 – Late Afternoon of a Faun or Thrilled to Bits (solo, after Nijinsky; mus. Debussy), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1982 – Baby Go Boom (mus. Holiday. Armstrong, Farnell), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1982 – Kneedance (mus. Anderson), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1982 – Walking on Thin Ice (mus. Ono), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1982 – Aurora Borealis (mus. Ono, Anderson, Hagen), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1983 – Land of a Thousand Dances (mus. Small, Pickett), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1983 – Sorry to have Missed You (mus. Tartini), Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Moves, Wellington
- 1983 – Ranterstantrum (mus. Branca), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
- 1983 – Dog Dance (solo; mus. Cage), Douglas Wright, New York
- 1984 – Threnody (solo; mus. Penderecki), Douglas Wright, Auckland
- 1984 – It's Not Unusual (mus. Tom Jones), Douglas Wright and Brian Carbee, Auckland
- 1984 – Cubist Cowboy Shootout (with Brian Carbee; mus. various), Auckland
- 1985 – Halcyon (mus. Vivaldi), Limbs Dance Company, Whangārei
- 1986 – Parallel (mus. Busby), for two gymnasts, New York
- 1987 – Hey Paris (mus. Ayler, Hirt, Nancarrow), Douglas Wright and Dancers, New York
- 1987 – Quartet (mus. Vivaldi), Douglas Wright and Dancers, New York
- 1987 – Faun Variations (solo; mus. Ravel), Paul Taylor Company, City Centre, New York
- 1988 – Now is the Hour (mus. McGlashan and various), Limbs Dance Company, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington
- 1988 – Aria (solo, text Dostoevsky), MJ O'Reilly, Auckland
- 1989 – How on Earth (mus. various), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Auckland
- 1989 – a far Cry (mus. Bartok), Australian Dance Theatre, Adelaide
- 1990 – Passion Play: A New Dance (with Kilda Northcott), Wellington
- 1990 – Gloria (mus. Vivaldi), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Wellington
- 1990 – I Am A Dancer/Gloria (documentary film/dance, dir. Bollinger/ Oomen), Top Shelf Productions, TV1 national television broadcast, Sunday Arts
- 1991 – As It Is (mus. Bartok, Laird), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Auckland
- 1992 – Beethoven (mus. Beethoven and the Shangri-Las), graduating students of the Performing Arts School, Auckland
- 1992 – The Decay of Lying (text, Wilde; mus. Lully), The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington
- 1992 – Elegy for Jim, Leigh and Bayly (solo, mus. Wilson), Artzaid Benefit, Wellington
- 1993 – Forever (mus. various; film Graves; design Pearce), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Auckland
- 1993 – Elegy for Jim, Leigh and Bayly (dance film; dir. Graves), New Zealand International Film Festival, Wellington
- 1994 – As It Is – A Fragment (for television broadcast, dir. Graves mus. Bartok, Laird), Dance and the Camera, Television New Zealand, national broadcast, TV1 Work of Art
- 1995 Forever (dance film co-directed with Chris Graves), TV1 national television broadcast, Work of Art
- 1996 – Ore (solo), Next Wave Festival, Auckland
- 1996 – Ore (dance film; co-directed with Chris Graves), International Film Festival, Wellington
- 1996 – Buried Venus (mus. Farr and various; design, Pearce), Douglas Wright Dance Company, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington
- 1996 – Aida (directed by Wright), Victorian State Opera, Melbourne
- 1997 – Forbidden Memories (a work for theatre based on a novel by James Purdy with design by John Verryt), Auckland
- 1997 – Cunning Little Vixen (directed by Wright), Opera Australia, Sydney
- 1997 – Rose and Fell (mus. Part, Gubaidulina, Mussorgsky), The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington
- 2000 - Halo, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington
- 2002 – Inland New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington and national tour (mus Juliet Palmer, video Florian Habicht, costumes Tanya Carlson, text Douglas Wright and Peta Rutter, design John Verryt )
- 2006 – Black Milk (mus. David Long, design and costumes Michael Pearce, lighting Robert Ghesquiere, text and banners Douglas Wright )
- 2007 – Tama ma duet commissioned by Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal as the second of five sections comprising a larger work of the same name which premiered in the Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, October 2008, subsequently toured New Zealand, and began international touring commitments in 2010.
- 2007 – a small dance for the children's theatre work Rumplestiltskin (Phineas Phrog Productions)
- 2007 – He then choreographed a dance especially for his niece Sarah
- 2011 – rapt – commissioned by Auckland Festival
- 2015 – The Kiss Inside – commissioned by the New Zealand Festival
- 2018 – M_nod – commissioned by Michael Lett
References
- ^ Eggleton, David (27 March 2004). "Still Life with Douglas". New Zealand Listener. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
- ^ "Dancer Douglas Wright dies aged 62". Newshub. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
- ^ "The Kiss Inside". Theatreview online archive.
- ^ "Dancer Douglas Wright dies aged 62". Newshub. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
- OCLC 1011322731.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 1998". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 June 1998. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ^ "Dance review: Tempo Dance Festival - week two". 16 October 2018 – via www.nzherald.co.nz.
- ^ "Between Two - The queues should be round the block". www.theatreview.org.nz.
- ^ "Modern dance figure Douglas Wright dies aged 62". 15 November 2018.
- ^ "Douglas Wright Art". Online gallery of Douglas Wright art works. Archived from the original on 29 April 2007.
Sources
- Elleray, Michelle (1993). Barbarous gestures: voicing the visual in a far Cry Unpublished monograph
- McNaughton, Howard (1998). Performing on the Faultlines: Douglas Wright's Forever in Helen Gilbert (ed) (Post)Colonial Stages: Critical and Creative Views on Drama, Theatre and Performance in Colonised Cultures. Hebden Bridge, U.K, Dangaroo Press.
- Whyte, Raewyn (1994). Dance Works of 1993: A Review Article Illusions: NZ Moving Image and Performing Arts Criticism. #23 Winter 1994: 28–35
- Whyte, Raewyn (1996). Buried Venus: An Interview with Douglas Wright. Landfall: New Zealand Arts & Letters #191 Autumn 1996:37–49
- Whyte, Raewyn Chronology of Douglas Wright Choreographic Works [archived doc, continuously maintained]
- Wilcox, Leonard (2006) Dancing Dissent: Douglas Wright’s Black Milk Landfall: New Zealand Arts & Letters #212, Spring, 2006:145–151.