Birds of Paradise
Birds of Paradise serves up a unique, flamboyant and feathery feast, in the form of an avant-garde burlesque cabaret.
The show merges dance, drama, and comedy into a most stupendous menagerie. This will be an unforgettable evening, filled with exquisitely ornate, humorous, and delightfully sensual creatures.
Uniquely talented Morag Magnolia Brownlie weaves a rich tapestry of dance, drama, comedy and burlesque. Morag is best known for her decades of directing, choreography, visuals and design on The NZ Wearable Art awards, internationally acclaimed films, and multimedia dance extravaganzas.
She has designed and worked on many unique performance experiences including the Team New Zealand Americas Cup Ball’s and Sky City’s New Years Eve spectacles, and the occasional 20 tonne digger dancing in the Auckland Domain, to the Symphony Orchestra.
With this intimate and luscious evening she is giving you a treat - exquisite food (dinner from 6pm, book at venue), delicious cocktails, a hilarious and glamorous show.
Birds of Paradise features feathered friends of Aotearoa and the Pacific, and some universal archetypes. The notorious Mika, stunning Caitlin Smith, hilarious Jonathen Brugh, gorgeous dancers Georgie Goater, Naressa Gamble, Seonade Lyons, members of Pasifika Sway dance company and many acclaimed performers join Morag to delight you and tickle your fancy. Some tease, some taunt, some startle with their voice and some have other special abilities…
This show is about birds and their feathers. But more, it is about paradise. The best place to find paradise is in the spaces and moments between two, bird or human, two humming with chemistry and love. This show plays with the rituals that can bring them together and celebrates the courtship driven, attention-seeking performances of some bizarre and alluring creatures.
Organisers are asking the audience to dress with style. Arrive adorned with a fascinator hat or feathery cravat, and you may be in for a treat.
Come and be swept away …
Birds of Paradise: As Part of Tempo Festival of Dance 09
Fri 16 & Sat 17 Oct - Leigh Sawmill Café (DJ and Caitlin Smith at Sawmill only)
Sat 24 & Sun 25 Oct - Ascension Vineyard, Matakana.
Both venues open at 6pm for a special feathery feast and drinks. Show – 9pm.
Tickets: $35 - $55. Booking: www.eventfinder.co.nz or www.birdsofparadise.co.nz
For Publicity queries: Elephant Publicity, 09 368 4180 or elephant99@paradise.net.nz
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Comments
We went to the show at Ascension on Saturday night and had high expectations after being on the beautiful Birds of Paradise website. Unfortunately while the costumes were quite spectacular, the show as a whole was disappointing and certainly not worth the $55 that they are charging for tickets.
The concept was original and certainly has potential, but the execution lacked cohesion, reason and polish. The dancers were out of time, the singers were out of key, and those mouthing the songs didn't seem to know the words! The David Attenborough narrative which was supposed to be the glue tying each skit together was both tired and poorly written. Nobody would know who David Attenborough is if his scripts were that lacking.
Margot Magnolia Brownlie did a good job of trying to hold the show together and her Mrs Mmmmm character was entertaining and charming, but was not enough to carry the rest of the show, that would curiously clank from The Piano score to a disco hit and then to a Beyonce song.
Hopefully in future seasons the show will meet expectations, but not in its current inception, which felt more like watching a amateur dance troop than a professional production.