Douglas Wright (dancer)

Douglas Wright was an openly gay dancer and choreographer in the New Zealand arts establishment from 1980 until his retirement from dance in 2008 on the occasion of the publication of his first book of poetry, Laughing Mirror (see below).

Wright was born in Tuakau, South Auckland in 1956. From 1980 - 1983 he danced with Limbs Dance Company and choreographed a number of works on the company before travelling to New York where he danced with the Paul Taylor Company, 1983-1987 and London with DV8 Physical Theatre, 1988. Returning to New Zealand in 1989, he formed the Douglas Wright Dance Company, with which he created more than 30 major works, touring New Zealand, Australia and Europe. Reviews of many of his dance works can be found in Sidestep, the archive of New Zealand dance writing.

In 2003 Wright was the subject of an award-winning feature-length documentary film, Haunting Douglas, directed by Leanne Pooley for Spacific Films.

He has written two volumes of semi-fiction/semi-autobiography, Ghost Dance (Penguin, 2004 - Montana Awards Best First Book of Non-Fiction, 2004) and Terra Incognito (2006), also hosted an inaugural one-man exhibition of his paintings and multimedia sculptures , and in October 2007 a poetry collection, Laughing Mirror was published by Steele Roberts. With the launch of Laughing Mirror, Wright announced his retirement from dance.

Choreographic Works

• 1981 - Back Street Primary (poetry, J Frame; mus. Talking Heads), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1982 - Late Afternoon of a Faun or Thrilled to Bits (solo, after Nijinsky; mus. Debussy), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1982 - Baby Go Boom (mus. Holiday. Armstrong, Farnell), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1982 - Kneedance (mus. Anderson), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1982 - Walking On Thin Ice (mus. Ono), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1982 - Aurora Borealis (mus. Ono, Anderson, Hagen), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1983 - Land of a Thousand Dances (mus. Small, Pickett), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1983 - Sorry to have Missed You (mus. Tartini), Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Moves, Wellington
• 1983 - Ranterstantrum (mus. Branca), Limbs Dance Company, Auckland
• 1983 - Dog Dance (solo; mus. Cage), Douglas Wright, New York
• 1984 - Threnody (solo; mus. Penderecki), Douglas Wright, Auckland
• 1984 - It's Not Unusual (mus. Tom Jones), Douglas Wright and Brian Carbee, Auckland
• 1984 - Cubist Cowboy Shootout (with Brian Carbee; mus. various), Auckland
• 1985 - Halcyon (mus. Vivaldi), Limbs Dance Company, Whangarei
• 1986 - Parallel (mus. Busby), for two gymnasts, New York
• 1987 - Hey Paris (mus. Ayler, Hirt, Nancarrow), Douglas Wright and Dancers, New York
• 1987 - Quartet (mus. Vivaldi), Douglas Wright and Dancers, New York
• 1987 - Faun Variations (solo; mus. Ravel), Paul Taylor Company, City Centre, New York
• 1988 - Now is the Hour (mus. McGlashan and various), Limbs Dance Company, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington
• 1988 - Aria (solo, text Dostoevsky), MJ O'Reilly, Auckland
• 1989 - How On Earth (mus. various), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Auckland
• 1989 - a far Cry (mus. Bartok), Australian Dance Theatre, Adelaide
• 1990 - Passion Play: A New Dance (with Kilda Northcott), Wellington
• 1990 - Gloria (mus. Vivaldi), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Wellington
• 1990 - I Am A Dancer/Gloria (documentary film/dance, dir. Bollinger/ Oomen), Top Shelf Productions, TV1 national television broadcast, Sunday Arts
• 1991 - As It Is (mus. Bartok, Laird), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Auckland
• 1992 - Beethoven (mus. Beethoven and the Shangri-Las), graduating students of the Performing Arts School, Auckland
• 1992 - The Decay of Lying (text, Wilde; mus. Lully), The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington
• 1992 - Elegy for Jim, Leigh and Bayly (solo, mus. Wilson), Artzaid Benefit, Wellington
• 1993 - Forever (mus. various; film Graves; design Pearce), Douglas Wright Dance Company, Auckland
• 1993 - Elegy for Jim, Leigh and Bayly (dance film; dir. Graves), New Zealand International Film Festival, Wellington
• 1994 - As It Is - A Fragment (for television broadcast, dir. Graves mus. Bartok, Laird), Dance and the Camera, Television New Zealand, national broadcast, TV1 Work of Art
• 1995 Forever (dance film co-directed with Chris Graves), TV1 national television broadcast, Work of Art
• 1996 - Ore (solo), Next Wave Festival, Auckland
• 1996 - Ore (dance film; co-directed with Chris Graves), International Film Festival, Wellington
• 1996 - Buried Venus (mus. Farr and various; design, Pearce), Douglas Wright Dance Company, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington
• 1996 - Aida (directed by Wright), Victorian State Opera, Melbourne
• 1997 - Forbidden Memories (a work for theatre based on a novel by James Purdy), Auckland
• 1997 - Cunning Little Vixen (directed by Wright), Opera Australia, Sydney
• 1997 - Rose and Fell (mus. Part, Gubaidulina, Mussorgsky), The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington
• 2002 - Inland New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington and national tour (mus Juliet Palmer, video Florian Habicht, costumes Tanya Carlson, text Douglas Wright and Peta Rutter )
• 2006 - Black Milk (mus. David Long, design and costumes Michael Pearce, lighting Robert Ghesquiere, text and banners Douglas Wright )
• 2007 - Tama ma commissioned by Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal for a larger work to premiere in 2009
• 2007 - a small dance for the children's theatre work Rumplestiltskin (Phineas Phrog Productions)
• 2007 - He then choreographed a dance especially for his niece Sarah
• 2008 - In 2008 he turned gay, and fell in love with Shane Gibson

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References

• Elleray, Michelle (1993). Barbarous gestures: voicing the visual in a far Cry Unpublished monograph
• McNaughton, Howard (1998). Performing on the Faultlines: Douglas Wright's Forever in Helen Gilbert (ed) (Post)Colonial Stages: Critical and Creative Views on Drama, Theatre and Performance in Colonised Cultures. Hebden Bridge, U.K, Dangaroo Press.
• Whyte, Raewyn (1994). Dance Works of 1993: A Review Article Illusions: NZ Moving Image and Performing Arts Criticism. #23 Winter 1994: 28-35
• Whyte, Raewyn (1996). Buried Venus: An Interview with Douglas Wright. Landfall: New Zealand Arts & Letters #191 Autumn 1996:37-49
• Whyte, Raewyn Chronology of Douglas Wright Choreographic Works [archived doc, continuously maintained]
• Wilcox, Leonard (2006) Dancing Dissent: Douglas Wright’s Black Milk Landfall: New Zealand Arts & Letters #212, Spring, 2006:145-151.