Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia and The New Zealand Dance Company come together in a landmark collaboration honouring revered choreographer, the late Douglas Wright.
Douglas is acclaimed as one of New Zealand's most magnificent artists of the 21st century – his work 'GLORIA' has been remounted only a handful of times since its 1990 premiere.
Ten dancers will fly, twist and turn in a graceful, airborne celebration of life and a triple bill brought not only by Douglas Wright, but also by Co3 Founding Artistic Director Raewyn Hill ('A MOVING PORTRAIT'), and renowned Māori choreographer/New Zealand Dance Company Artistic Director Moss Te Ururangi Patterson ('LAMENT').
Here, we find out more about 'A MOVING PORTRAIT' from its creator (and Co3 Founding Artistic Director) Raewyn Hill.
Your offering in ‘GLORIA’ is 'A MOVING PORTRAIT'. Tell us a bit about your work and how it fits into the triple bill.
'A MOVING PORTRAIT' explores the idea of identity as something fluid and continually evolving. Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, the work leans into shifting emotional states, memory, and physical expression as a way of revealing the self. Within the triple bill, it offers a more intimate and introspective counterpoint – sitting alongside the other works as a quieter but deeply human reflection on what it means to be seen and to change over time.
How did you craft your work and how did it come to be included in this performance?
The work was developed through a collaborative studio process, beginning with improvisation to text and images and conversations with the dancers. I was interested in how personal histories could be translated into movement, so much of the material emerged from their lived experiences. Over time, we shaped those fragments into a cohesive physical language. Its inclusion in ‘GLORIA’ came through an alignment of artistic vision, presenting diverse choreographic voices that each approach the body and storytelling in distinct ways.
Talk a bit about this being a collaboration between Co3 and The New Zealand Dance Company. What does that mean to you?
This collaboration feels both artistically rich and personally meaningful. Co3 and the New Zealand Dance Company share a similar ethos invested in rigorous practice, contemporary expression, and the shaping of powerful human stories through dance. Bringing the two companies together creates a beautiful conversation across cultures, landscapes, and artistic lineages. For me, as someone with deep connections to both places, it feels like a homecoming of sorts. It’s an opportunity to bridge communities, expand the artistic language, and offer dancers the chance to grow through each other’s strengths. Collaboration always brings unexpected gifts, new ideas, new connections, new ways of seeing and this partnership has been exactly that.
How are you hoping audiences respond to your work?
I’m not seeking a specific response so much as a genuine one. My hope is simply that audiences feel something, recognition, curiosity, stillness, resonance, or even discomfort. ‘A MOVING PORTRAIT’ invites viewers into a quieter emotional space, one where details matter and presence become powerful. If people leave the theatre a little more attuned to themselves or to others, if something lingers with them after the applause, then the work has done what it set out to do.
GLORIA – A TRIPLE BILL Tour Dates
24 March – Margaret River Heart
27 March – Red Earth Arts Precinct (Karratha)
31 March-1 April – His Majesty's Theatre (Perth)
