New spin on Light Festival New name, new location and for Chloe Loftus a new chance to showcase her talents with her aerial performance, 'The Air Between Us' at Te Ramaroa, formally Light Nelson.
P
eople will often tell you that it can take years to feel like a local, but for Chloe Loftus, Nelson felt like home from the moment she arrived. Born in Italy, she spent her teenage years in New Zealand, and upon returning after 15 years studying and working in the UK, she says that she felt drawn to Nelson. Despite this, the dancer, choreographer and mass movement director who specialises in aerial and outdoor work, has spent the last four and a half years as a professional nomad. Living in her house truck, she toured her work around the country but is delighted to have finally put down roots in Nelson. “Living such a minimalistic and nomadic lifestyle has taught me a lot and I’m grateful for the experience, but it’s also exciting to finally have earth beneath my feet.” On top of shifting into her new home, she’s also been busy preparing for Te Ramaroa (Nelson’s Light Festival). Collaborating with multi-award-winning dancer Rodney Bell, they will be performing their mesmerising outdoor illuminated aerial dance spectacle ‘The Air Between Us’ in the Upper Trafalgar Street performance precinct.
features contemporary and contact dance, as they soar above the crowds, inverting and spinning. “Like planets encircling around each other, we are magnetically and gravitationally pulled by each other’s energy,” says Chloe. “It is such an honour to work with Rodney as he has a deeply embedded connection to nature.” Chloe first performed in Nelson in the 2018 Light Festival debuting her piece ‘Arboreal Aerialist’ high up in the trees in Albion Square. Te Ramaroa project manager Sophie Kelly is delighted to have Chloe back again for this year’s festival. Sophie says that the performance pieces and installations magnify the significance of what the festival is all about. “Our new name, Te Ramaroa, reflects the concept of a beacon that honours the past, celebrates the present, and holds a light to a bright and positive future,” says Sophie. In addition to ‘The Air Between Us’, Chloe is also directing ‘Out of the Blue’, an illuminated roaming community dance performance that speaks to our connection to our oceans.
Suspended between trees, ‘The Air Between Us’ explores how, through curiosity, openness and play, we have the innate capacity to live in symbiotic harmony with each other and the land.
Te Ramaroa will feature more than 30 light installations and projections as well as designated precincts for food and live music. There will also be roving entertainment, including some new (lampshade-y) characters created especially for the event.
Spiralling into the air, with a counterweighted rigging system specially designed by Tym Miller-White for Chloe and Rodney, who is a wheelchair user, this aerial harness performance
Te Ramaroa is a free community event which runs 9 - 13 July, 5.30pm – 9.30pm. Sign up on their website teramaroa.nz for updates or follow their Facebook page.
35
