English: TWO WOMEN WEAVE A DYNAMIC TALE ABOUT THEIR DANCING LIVES

Jan Bolwell and Mona Williams combine forces in Once Upon a Dance, an hour long show which tells the story of their dancing lives.

        They are both members of Crows Feet Dance Collective, a contemporary dance company for mature women in Wellington. Jan is also a playwright and actor and teaches dance exercise classes on the Kapiti Coast. Mona is a well known professional storyteller touring around Australasia.  
       Bolwell, who is directs Crows Feet says: Mona and I come from such different cultural and dancing backgrounds. Mona grew up in what was once British Guiana and learned her traditional dances, as well as studying ballet. I grew up in Dunedin and learned Highland dancing and then modern dance with Shona MacTavish. We have found it fascinating to put these different dance traditions beside each other in a theatrical way.” 

Bolwell and Williams also have a lot in common. They discovered the first ballet they ever saw was The Nutcracker, albeit on different sides of the globe. They recount in words and movement how it felt to be in the audience. As young people they adored American musicals and knew all the songs. “ We have great fun in Once Upon a Dance competing with each other as to who can remember the most musicals. Apart from storytelling, Bolwell and Williams dance and sing, and the work is richly illustrated with projected images from their lives. But it’s not all light and amusing. Says Bolwell: “When you get to our age (late 60s and early 70s) you’ve experienced a lot of heartache, and we don’t shy away from telling these stories as well. In my case it is dealing with two bouts of breast cancer and with Mona, it is a broken marriage. Dance helped us overcome these personal traumas.”