By Hon Judith Tizard, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture, and Heritage

In the last week I’ve been a part of two amazingly good cultural performances. Both events drew crowds of ordinary New Zealanders to watch groups of extraordinary New Zealanders push themselves to deliver truly extraordinary performances.

The first event involved a small crowd gathering in Auckland’s Maidment Theatre, dressed in layers of ubiquitous designer merino and more than a few stunning frocks. Anything flash really.

The occasion was an extraordinary performance by Touch Compass, to mark their being part of our cultural landscape for ten years now. Like many of our cultural institutions – one or two aging rockers aside – Touch Compass is clearly getting better with age. The fascinating thing about Touch Compass is that they are a dance troupe whose stars, nine in the latest performance, are performing despite a range of mental and physical disabilities. But you’re quickly spirited beyond this. They’re that good.

The second event involved a slightly bigger crowd gathering in a wind-swept Porirua Park, dressed in layers of ubiquitous designer merino and more than a few rugby jerseys, coats, and scarves. Anything warm really.

This occasion was a spectacular performance by the Black Ferns, New Zealand’s women’s rugby team. Where Touch Compass engaged the audience through aerial movement and suggestive poses and expressions, the Black Ferns left no doubt as to their motives or purpose.

The performances were two very different cups of tea, but equally engaging, equally brilliant and equally satisfying.

The NZ Herald described the performance by Touch Compass as “a fantasia of colour, movement, life and humour”. I don’t know how well a review of a rugby match would go down described in those terms, but walking out of Porirua Park, I think it was pretty much spot on.

What I found most interesting is that this is the first instance I can recall where media coverage of a performing arts group has far surpassed that of a national sports team. While I would love to think this was a result of a wider awareness of the arts, which in turn could well be the result of a Government in full support of a stronger arts community, I suspect it was neither.

Either way, I had a great couple of days, and saw two truly breathtaking performances. I’d encourage you to look a bit harder for your next cultural fix.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Events, Guest blogger - Judith Tizard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.