Reviews of MINIATURES

The Dominion Post
by Jennifer Shennan

When Wearable Arts comes to Wellington in September, you will all want to know who is the choreographer in charge of the astonishing moves no doubt to be seen there, performed in the wackiest dress-ups in the world.   Her name is Malia Johnston. Take a tip and go along this week to Te Whaea to see what Johnston can do with a team of seven smart, cool, beautiful dancers who move as though gravity is a negotiable phenomenon.  By turns astonishing, whimsical, hilarious, daredevil, lyrical, this is choreography with a joyous amount of movement, celestial physics and terrific team play.

There is a completely stunning incorporation of a moveable set of large and small boxes, and some free-standing ladders, as though they were part of the cast. No set designer is credited so I’m guessing that too is Johnston’s work. Lighting (the work of Bonnie Burrill) is integrated brilliantly within the staged movement and allows the audience to glimpse the dancing out of a labyrinth of secret places within an artist’s imagination.  Musical direction ( the work of Eden Mulholland, of the Auckland band, Motocade) is powerful and supportive - the lyrics of songs are lightly referenced in the dance, but never clumsily so.

This work has been fabulously well received by schools audiences in Auckland, as part of the recent Stamp Festival, and one can see why.  Its communication is both direct yet oblique, you can see the bodies very well but there’s a kind of anonymity that has the faces turned askance - no ego trippers here. The movement is often very smartly in unison yet always fresh, and follows an unpredictable course. It will appeal to the young, but manages to make the rest of us feel young.  How can you lose? There are sequences of people trapped, and escaping, and hiding, and helping, and befriending, and teasing, and playing, and resting.  Then there are birds, a flock of petrels, nervously perched high as they try to build up the courage to set off on a vast migration.  Gold light shining onto the bare backs of beautiful dancers turning into birds has to be one of the loveliest sights in town this week.  The dancers are mostly graduates from Performing Arts at Unitec, and are a credit to that school. Any local college that can organize a bus and a group booking for their students to attend this production will have a resource for their Dance Curriculum assignments till the end of the year.  The rest of the population can just take pleasure in this marvel of miniatures.

NZ Listener June 04
“These Four Walls” by Francesca Horsley

An impressive evening of dance signaled an expanded of vision for choreographer Malia Johnston.

Johnston used boxes, ladders and balance to play with notions of containment and freedom.  Boxes for metaphors for varied states ñ burdens, constricted realities, defined boundaries.  The largest, an upright booth positioned to one side of the stage, was the point of arrival and exit.  It was variously a wardrobe, a magicians box, a pedestal.  The dancers traversed it, hid in it, danced wildly on its top and at one point a blinding light beckoned from inside. Three large wooden boxes provided an array of invention.  The tiny Johnston staggered across the stage carrying one in her arms and crumpled face up with it resting on her chest.

There were decoupage-like boxes in an Alice in Wonderland world, with dancers squirming inside, arms and legs flexing over the edges.  They became caves for Yew and Johnston to hang upside down in, bat shaped; then nests with Julia Milsom, Sarah Sproull and Paul Young emerging, tender and lyrical, like swans arching and folding. In a beautiful sequence woman balanced on tiny blocks, flexing their bare backs and arms, revealing the elegance of contour, spine and muscle.  In another, Liana Yew Partnered by Jacob Sullivan, demonstrated grace and strength as she sprang over a box in soaring arcs. Johnston uses counterpoint and juxtaposition to great affect. 

Ladders framed and intersected space, vertical and horizontal planes were inverted, tilted. In a daring move Sullivan and Young balanced on either side of a vertical ladder atop a box. Hard lines of the props were set against the soft contour of bodies and curing movement. The dancers were impressive, with fluid movement and gymnastic agility.

Eden Mulholland’s sound score featuring strings, pulsating beats, bird calls, rock guitars, cleverly partnered the work.  Lighting by Brad Gledhill coated the dancers bodies in golden tones, and alluring Asho Gevorgyan evoked understated appeal. Johnston is strongest when engaging in relationships with dancers or objects, less effective in solo work. Nevertheless, her assurance and craftsmanship signal a step into the big league.  The work finished with Johnston, hidden as precious treasure in a tilted upended box, spun on tangent by Sullivan.

NZ Listener Dec 2004
Excerpts  from “The best of dance 2004” by Francesca Horsley

Best Contemporary Choreographer

Malia Johnston’s artistic depth and versatility were revealed in two strong works.  Her ensemble piece, Miniatures, was rich with imagery and invention.  Terrain,her collaborative piece with Guy Ryan, was taut and intellectual.  Johnston has the ability to translate her concepts into cohesive and highly crafted movement.

Best Female Dancer – Contemporary

Malia Johnston’s dancing in Miniatures and Terrain encompassed soft, fluid movement, lyrical partnering, sustained and demanding balances.  She made it all look effortless

City Mix Magazine
by Raewyn Whyte

Malia Johnston’s new dance work Miniatures proves that it’s not size that counts.

The small, precious things in life are brought into focus in Miniatures in a new dance work by director/choreographer/performer Malia Johnston. Performers perch on plinths and pose on pedestals as living breathing objects. They are boxed into tiny spaces like insects in a specimen case or stacked onto shelves like clothing waiting for summer to return.  They then move through space, in and out of one another’s arms, imprinting the air with a fleeting presence. From the NZ Wearable Arts Awards through to detailed dance film Small War, Malia Johnston is one of our most prolific and successful choreographers.  In Miniatures she collaborates with performers Sarah Sproull, Liana Yew, Maria Dabrowska, Jacob Sullivan and Julia Milsom, and composer/musician Eden Mulholland.