Today in New Zealand International Arts Festival history: MTYLand & Sound Of Silence (2010)
Two shows from the same year (and the same day), today - plus a bonus photo of lovely Vi Blackburn, who has been ushering and selling programmes around Wellington for as long as anyone can remember. This is possibly the first photo I got of her in action, but I always tried to track her down at some point during each Festival.
The first show is Clare O'Neil's dance piece MTYLand, performed by Footnote Dance and possibly my favourite piece of theirs. Certainly a great one to photograph - I've had dancers stop me at events years later to thank me for taking these, which is lovely of them.
And of course, The Sound Of Silence, from Latvia's New Theatre of Riga. I found this work fascinating, told as it was with no words - just Simon & Garfunkel music - but spanning decades of life behind the Iron Curtain, trying to hear what was happening on the other side. (I also remember this show because the guys just wanted to talk about the hockey at the Vancouver Olympic Games each night, which were on at the time...)
It was also one I could only get a chance to photograph during a performance, with an audience in - which meant it was another good time to use my blimp...especially with no dialogue! Worked perfectly, no-one in the audience (or on stage for that matter) noticed a thing!