Combining stand-up comedy with experimental dance, really? Brian Logan of The Guardian explains in his interview with the New Art Club duo: “When Roden’s double act, New Art Club, performed with Pete Shenton, started appearing on comedy bills four years ago, I assumed they were a spoof – a couple of men scoring cheap laughs by squeezing their untoned bodies into leotards. I was wrong.” New Art Club was formed in 2001 by Tom Roden and Pete Shenton. Each has 15 years experience in contemporary dance and both have choreographed for the Royal Opera House. New Art Club has so far produced a wealth of critically acclaimed, hilarious, dance shows and toured nationally and internationally, winning multiple awards along the way, Logan says. Their breakthrough show, This is Modern, is a spoof on contemporary dance. It has been touring solidly since, as with their follow-up, The Electric Tales. New Art Club followed their success in the dance world and made a seamless transition into the comedy world, by heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008 and 2009. Both shows have been touring since and This Is Now went on to sell-out a run at the Soho Theatre, London, in 2010.

So what have the critics said? Donald Hutera of The Times called it “thoughtful and endearing, a blend of movement and spoken text that is at times almost perfectly pitched between schoolboy silliness and teasing satire ... a neatly constructed, deceptively informal hour of silly-smart humour and quirky pretension-deflating movement … expert timing and tongue-in-cheek wit.” Judith Mackrell of The Guardian said: “The clichés and agonies of late twentieth century choreography were wickedly exposed, with expert comic timing.” Fringe Review’s David Mounfield said: “Not since the short-lived dance duo Talcum and Turnips, a brief early venture by Vic and Bob, has dance been so funny … a highly unusual, refreshing and rewarding show.” Phil Kay of The Metro called it “one of the best things I’ve ever seen”.  Chris Hislop of Fringe Guru said it was “...random, bizarre, and absolutely hilarious”. John Rockwell of The New York Times said it was just, “Downright funny ... ”

In Brian Logan’s interview Roden says of their works: “deal with the stuff you can’t pin down in words”. Shenton says that there can be “something inherently, if accidentally, funny about contemporary dance”. It’s an experimental art form, after all, whose practitioners often risk looking ridiculous in pursuit of new means of expression. Roden noted: “The thing about doing something meaningful on stage, is that the audience don’t make a noise.” Logan says he senses a performer who has caught the comedy bug. “I’m getting used to hearing the laughs, and now I notice when they’re not there. So, while I’d say that laughs and beauty have equal importance in our shows, I prefer the laughs. Every time.”

Janet Pates lives with her husband in the township of Tuakau with three sons and four grandchildren scattered near and far – mostly far. After reading and writing, her favourite things are the bush, the beach, and all things alive, particularly bugs and birds. She is the author of Godwits & Gannets - three short stories that capture the essence of New Zealand rural and small-town life – a result of following the adage to ‘write what you know’. Her characters are compelling and the settings quintessential New Zealand, and her prose has been likened to that of Steinbeck and Jhumpa Lahiri. Her three favourite book choices are:

Godwits & Gannets is available from www.publishmeshop.co.nz

The Once and Future King by T H White
This book is the stuff of legends and fantasy but of all the Arthurian interpretations this one has for me, the ‘feel’ of truth about it. A quartet of stories, the first (The Sword in the Stone ), is the best known. I admire T H White for his whimsical humour and attempts to grapple with the large moral questions that beset mankind in his day and ours. A book to read and re-read.

The Turning by Tim Winton
I have a huge admiration for this Australian writer; for the spare, elegance of his prose, for his wry humour and the dignity with which he treats his often flawed characters. From two lads making their escape ‘in the January of their lives’ to ex-alcoholic ‘Honest Bob’, who is proud of his sobriety because it’s all he has, this collection of longish, linked short stories is vintage Winton.

Feet on the Ground by Margaret O’ Donnell
A relic of my youth, this anthology is subtitled, ‘An Approach To Modern Verse’. Being first published in 1940, the description no longer applies but it contains many of my favourites. Perhaps that explains why I once had a poem rejected with the comment, ‘This poem was written as people used to write fifty years ago and, thank God, no longer do.’ I no longer write poetry!