Image: Andi Crown

BELLE - A Performance Of Air

Movement Of The Human

Movement Of The Human is a movement and performance design company developed by Malia Johnston with creative collaborators Rowan Pierce, Eden Mulholland and Ian Hammond.

Movement Of The Human (MOTH) is an independent arts organisation based in Aotearoa New Zealand, specialising in movement design and live performance. MOTH are renowned for creating ground breaking, memorable and affecting work. MOTH collaborates and works with artists and arts companies across new composition, design, choreography, performance architecture and AV for small through to larger scale performances that span civic engagements, festivals, events, new commissions and site specific work.

The team at MOTH interface with multiple art forms that help to inform or present their concepts. At the heart of what they do is MOVEMENT. Their interests are in delivering art and performance that speaks strongly to its audience, creating memorable experiences that are meaningful, endure are culturally thought provoking and have impact. MOTH are a diverse company who work on projects locally, nationally and internationally, and also regularly collaborate with other artists and organisations throughout New Zealand; many of these are long-standing creative partnerships. MOTH are interested in working collaboratively with presenters to deliver specifically to the needs of a programme and are able to re-imagine existing ideas to fit around new constraints, spaces or ideas.

MOTH toured their work Meremere to Sydney Opera house, Darwin Festival and Alter_State Melbourne in 2022 as well as taking their new site specific work TŌRUA to HOTA in May 2023.

MOTH’s award winning work and its individuals are recognised for their creativity and excellence in the worlds of theatre, dance, installations, events, recorded and live performances, sound and audio visual.

    ABOUT THE PROJECT

    BELLE is a mesmerising live performance work that collides dance, aerial performance with light architecture and live sound. BELLE’s set design collaborates with the laws of physics. It’s architecturally designed lighting and set along with aerial apparatus, unique to BELLE, provides a complete visual and aural experience for the senses. Light transforms the theatre creating the effect of new dimensions, it filters over the audience encouraging their immersion into the world. Smoke particles carry light as if something otherworldly has been forced into material form. This work is designed to be both filmic and Sci Fi. Light defines and enhances the space by creating ‘new’ dimensions: floors, panels, ceilings that the performers move through, or emerge from. This concept of ‘realms beyond’ stimulates imaginations creating a sense of possibility and the beyond. The multicultural all-female cast enables the work to innately address female strength, agility and unity. BELLE investigates and works with female strength through the physical language of the work. Feminine power is further explored metaphorically by using choreographic concepts examined through celestial space. The physicality of this work creates powerful and moving imagery exploring the physics of light and space, and the physical potential of the human body. Our female vocalist, Anita Clarke, weaves together a richly textured world with live violin, delay pedals and her live voice evokes a spiritual layer.

    BELLE explores and can respond to the architecture of the space it is presented in. Designed for the theatre, the work can also be moulded and developed to sit within a variety of spaces and the modular nature of the work allows us to collaborate with presenters in a variety of ways. BELLE is a beautiful work delivering a the realm of choreography that transcends the digital, historical and futuristic space of dreams and memories.

    Session Times
    PROFILE: Here’s What We Made
    Thursday 8 June

    CONTACT

    Malia Johnston
    malia@movementofthehuman.com