Homemade Jam

Part of the Pōneke Festival of Contemporary Dance 2024.

Homemade Jam is a Triple Bill of consisting of two of BCA’s signature works, alongside a new ‘jam’ to music by former BCA dancer Kit Reilly created in sessions with BCA artists and students from Tawa College, through BCA’s Creatives in Schools residency during Term 2 this year.

Auckland based Sarah Knox’s beautiful work Last Time We Spoke is a contemplation on absence, memory and the joy that can be found when we embrace community. The work was developed during Covid-19 and the process was also an emotional exploration of these themes at a time, when the sense of community was disrupted.

Loughlan Prior’s titular work Subtle Dances is described as “exploding with swirls of tango and is saucy, spicy, dark and compelling. Flirtation, nervousness, exhibitionism, ‘peacocking’ – the unspoken rituals performed in complex courtship are explored in this sassy and hypnotic work Inspired by traditional partner dance styles (ballroom and latin dance), the work slowly devolves into a physical language all of its own, where the lines of gender and sexuality are erased.

In between these 2 signature works from BCA is a new creation from Yr 12-13 students at Tawa College, to a specially commissioned soundscape from Kit Reilly. preference for reason is informed by themes of increasing polarity and conflict in the on/offline spaces we inhabit. The failure to listen and act with reason to any connection with the traditions of the ancient world when reasoned, sound, structured philosophical debate and critical thinking was integral to citizenship and humanity - and the concept of whakarongo; listen with the intention of understanding.