Dance years in the making

Jenny Newstead, of Mosgiel, is going to Brisbane to perform at the Undercover Arts Festival. She...
Jenny Newstead, of Mosgiel, is going to Brisbane to perform at the Undercover Arts Festival. She is pictured rehearsing From conversation: difference is our strength with Hahna Briggs at the OUSA recreation centre on Saturday. Photo by Linda Robertson.

The dance Jenny Newstead is going to perform with Hahna Briggs at the Brisbane Undercover Arts Festival has been years in the making, she says.

''We're doing a piece that has been developed [over] an eight-year movement conversation going on between Hahna Briggs and myself,'' she said.

Ms Newstead is disabled - Ms Briggs is not - and many of the conversations have centred on that dichotomy.

''She said we should use mobility tools as tools to play with to take the stigma off using them as mobility aids, whereas I though we should use illusions so you don't get the preconceived prejudice of disability from the audience in the first place.''

In the end, the pair seem to have moved further in the direction of using mobility tools as ''tools to play with''.

In a performance as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival this year, ''I pulled my wheelchair apart, and we both danced with crutches''.

In experimenting with Ms Briggs, Ms Newstead said she had learnt that it was ''hard for an able-bodied person to have the upper-body strength to ... do similar things to what I do with crutches''.

Ms Briggs had to go to the gym to get the upper-body strength, Ms Newstead said.

Their performance for the Brisbane festival will incorporate the themes of the ''eight-year movement conversation'', Ms Newstead said.

It is called From conversation: difference is our strength, and it opens with Ms Newstead and Ms Briggs wearing the same clothing and lipstick.

''It's like we're clones of each other, and eventually, we break out into our own personalities as we do our solos,'' Ms Newstead said.

The two women received a $1200 artist's fee from the festival, plus a $200 costume fund, but they are still hoping to raise at least $1200 more to pay for their flights to Australia and accommodation once they are there.

They will be giving a preview performance of the dance at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum on Sunday, June 14, at 2pm.

''It won't be the full work, but we'll do it as best we can, and people are welcome to give a donation or come just to see what we're up to,'' she said.

Ms Newstead said being accepted into the festival was ''quite significant'' for Dunedin.

''And for the Taieri. All my mates on the Taieri are really proud of me.''

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