Helena

Your help is needed to turn our dance work Helena into a film!  

About Helena.

Helena is a dance-horror loop, witnessing a lone woman undergoing a surreal ceremony of metamorphosis.

This work explores the circular rhythms of obsession, the strange undercurrent of our subconscious lives, and the concept of memory not as a faithful recollection, but as resurrection and reinterpretation, coloured and dislocated by the interactive passages of emotion and time.

Helena took on its first form during the Wellesley 2020 New Graduate residency. After developing and presenting this dance piece as a 30 minute live work in May 2021, we are now aiming to remount Helena as a short dance body-horror film.

Turning a stage work into a film.

We are taking a leap into new territory, by reworking our choreography as a film project, incorporating new elements like props and special effects makeup. However, film-making is an expensive medium, which is why we need your support.

With your help, we’ll be able to pay for: 

The first steps will be time and development, to transform our concept imagery into a proof of concept reel. This proof of concept reel will help ensure the viability of our vision, invite new collaborators into the work, and serve as supporting material when applying for institutional funding.

By supporting this campaign, you are giving a group of emerging artists the opportunity to strengthen and expand on their skillsets, and give us the opportunity to give Helena a sustainable life beyond its live-arts iteration.

Any and all support is so hugely appreciated. 

Thank you so much in advance, 

Miriam. 

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“The choreography is hypnotic and creates a dream-like state with its imagery and pacing. Veronica Chengen Lyu performs the movement with precise attention to detail, she is effortlessly strong and elegant.” 

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More about the team behind Helena.

Choreographer and Director: Miriam Eskildsen

Miriam Eskildsen is a 2019 graduate of Unitec’s Performing and Screen Arts degree, majoring in Contemporary Dance. While still at university, she directed and choreographed the short dance film ‘Ladybug,’ in collaboration with Veronica Chengen Lyu and Oli Mathiesen, which premiered in Tempo Dance Festivals’ 2020 digital season. 

Upon graduating, she created Solveig Co as a house for her dance and film projects, and under this moniker premiered her first full-length show ‘Separately, In Tandem,’ in 2021, undertook multiple choreographic residencies, and began developing a commissioned work for Tempo Dance Festivals' 2021 ‘Bloom’ season.  

Performer and choreographic collaborator: Veronica Chengen Lyu

Veronica ChengEn Lyu grew up in Yanji , Northern China, where she started dancing at the age of five. After graduating from Liaoning Ballet of China in 2016 she moved to New Zealand to continue her dance study. She completed her full-time contemporary dance study at Unitec, graduating in 2020 with a degree majoring in Contemporary Dance.

Since then, Veronica has performed in Ōtautahi Tiny Festival (Taking Residency, choreographed by Olivia O’Brien), co-directed/Choreographed and danced in Tempo Dance Festival 2020 (Dance film Ladybug, in collaboration with Miriam Eskildsen and Oli Mathiesen), and danced in a myriad of works, including the dance film – All Good If Not, choreographed by Xin Ji and solo work – Helena, choreographed by Miriam Eskildsen (Solveig Co). Veronica joined Footnote in 2021.

Composer: Elani Austin- Tennant

Elani Austin-Tennant is a movement artist and composer. From birth she was surrounded by classical musicians, and gained her own interest in composition upon discovering the likes of Philip Glass, John Psathas and Hans Zimmer.

After achieving Scholarship Music with Composition in her final year of high school, she entered into, and completed, a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts majoring in Contemporary Dance, and in her final year she composed and performed the music for her third year choreographic work (2019). 

Since graduation, she has composed and recorded the music for Miriam Eskildsen’s duet ‘Night Dance’ (2021), and is currently working on three musical scores which will accompany more of Miriam’s projects this year, including Helena.

Makeup, hair and SPFX artist: Fa’asu Afoa Purcell

Fa'asu Raven Afoa-Purcell is a contemporary artist, who graduated from the Unitec performing and screen arts programme in 2019. They are a keen collaborator and have worked with the likes of Tamsyn Russell, Michael Parmenter, Rebecca Jensen and Dance Plant Collective. Fa'asu is interested in collaboration and the human-connection experience.

Fa’asu has also worked as a professional makeup artist since 2016 within the live theatre, film and beauty industries, including on the original staging of Helena in May 2021. 

Acknowledgements:

This project was sparked while undertaking the 2020 Wellesley New Graduate Residency. Thank you to Katrina Todd and Wellesley studios for your ongoing support with this project, and to Katie Burton and Alyx Duncan for your mentoring support during the residency period.

Artwork credit: Delilah Lin

Original soundscape by: Rita Laing