Transforming culture
Christchurch will host the premiere of performance artist Alexa Wilson’s latest work Rituals of Destruction on November 27 as part of the 2021 Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival.
An innovator, a curator, a choreographer, and a performance artist, Alexa spent more than a decade performing in Europe and globally before returning to New Zealand.
Among her credits, she choreographed the award-winning Magic Box and Toxic White Elephant Shock, for which she earned the prestigious title of Best Emerging Choreographer and the Creative New Zealand Tup Lang Award respectively. She returned in 2011 to win four Auckland Fringe Awards for her solo Weg: A-Way.
As a choreographer and performer, Alexa’s work has taken her all around the world, including Berlin, Vienna, New York City, Germany, Belgium, Poland, London, Stockholm, Zurich, India, China and Vancouver.
With a canon of choreographed work that includes Star/Oracle, The Status of Being and The Dark Light with Footnote NZ Dance, 21 Movements, Breathless, and 999: Alchemist Trauma Centre/Power Centre.
She has danced for choreographers Douglas Wright, Malia Johnston, Lisa Densem, Anna Bate among others, and she curated Morni Hills Performance Biennale in India.
Rituals of Destruction is her first independently funded work since returning to Aotearoa, performed by Alexa herself alongside emerging talents Shani Dickins and Alana Yee, with a guest appearance by drummer Hannah Dactyl.
She describes the work as a response to the current times of mass crisis, and the global phenomena of mass protests, collective resistance, and traumatic effects of a pandemic in this new piece.
“Stemming from historical systemic imbalances, Rituals of Destruction is a glimpse at what happens when we reflect culture in order to transform it, aiming to break down oppressive norms in and around the body and identity.”
8pm, November 27
Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch Town Hall
