Movement alchemist Hannah Tasker-Poland exists as a force-of-nature in the arts realms. A highly regarded artist, her compelling artistry and powerful stage presence hang somewhere between the human and the divine, lifting audiences' gaze from the mundane into the extraordinary.
Her body of work is as a dance-artist, choreographer, producer, stage & screen actor, avant-garde burlesque artist, special effects performance specialist, stunt performer and muse with over 15 years professional experience, having toured throughout Australasia and Europe with well known companies and productions including The New Zealand Dance Company, Borderline Arts Ensemble, Footnote NZ Dance, Atamira Dance Company, Auckland Theatre Company, World of Wearable Arts, ‘Pleasuredome The Musical’, ‘Ghost In The Shell’, ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’.
She is the director of arts company projectMUSE, well known for her unique brand of innovative, captivating and visceral multidisciplinary live performance works.
She is a regular dance, movement and performance tutor and mentor, and was recently awarded the Equity NZ scholarship to begin Intimacy Co-Ordination & Direction training with IDC USA.
Organisation/Company
Name: projectMUSE
My Role: Director
projectMUSE is a project-based arts company by Hannah Tasker-Poland, based in Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. We create innovative, interdisciplinary and compelling dance, theatre, performance and visual art works, showcasing powerful storytelling and performance.
projectMUSE’s most recent original full-length work ‘The Most Naked’ enjoyed two sold-out seasons across Auckland and Wellington to rave reviews.
The Most Naked
Artform: Multidisciplinary Dance-Theatre-Cabaret
Development Status: Tour Ready
Pitch Video
Media Uploads
Trailer
Full Length
Synopsis
Fearlessly sinking its teeth into cultural mores around nudity, strip tease and the flashing of skin, The Most Naked is a visceral and provocative live art experience that strips nakedness right down to the bone.
Compelling, absurd and unsettlingly sexy, this multidisciplinary work-come-cabaret will invigorate and interrogate as audiences take an explorative journey to the relationship with nudity.
Inspired by cabaret and burlesque art-forms, it’s teeth are forcefully sunk into mesmerising dance artistry, subversive theatre, spectacular live music and political eroticism.
Produced, written, choreographed and performed by force-of-nature movement alchemist and “most naked” performer Hannah Tasker-Poland, with the live musical wizardry of internationally renowned composer and musician Lucien Johnson.
Commissioned by Auckland Live for the 2021 Cabaret Season at the iconic Civic Theatre Wintergarden, The Most Naked was one of the fastest selling works in the festival, completely selling out both it’s debut Auckland season and it’s follow-up BATS Theatre Wellington season. Hot stuff.
Described by reviewers as “goosebump raising”, “totally arresting” and a “tour-de-force [that] will toy with your senses, twist your mind and send you deep into your own behaviour values and experiences”, The Most Naked will not be the show you were expecting but GODDAMN it’ll be the show you’re glad you got.
Creative Team and Crew
Producer, Writer, Choreographer/Director, Performer: Hannah Tasker-Poland
Composer, Musician, Co-Writer: Lucien Johnson
Costume Design + Construction: Elizabeth Whiting
Special Effects Prosthetics Artist: Yolanda Bartram at BodyFX NZ
Set Design + Construction: Emmanuel Reynaud
Additional Performers: Lucy Lynch and Holly Finch (Auckland), Kia Jewell and Tessa Redman (Wellington)
Lighting Design + Operation: Tyler White (Auckland Live), Brynne Tasker-Poland (BATS Theatre Wellington)
Sound Operation: Nestor Taite (Auckland Live), Sam Tippett (BATS Theatre Wellington)
Sound Assist: Benny Jennings (Wellington)
Stage Manager: Hannah Moore and Michael Clark(Auckland Live), Sam Tippet (BATS Theatre Wellington)
Publicist: Cynthia Monardez at 818 (Auckland Live), Jean Sergent (BATS Wellington)
Rehearsal Assistant: Stef Fink
Photographers: Amanda Billing, Norrie Montgomery, Ivan Muller (Auckland), Caio Silva (Wellington)
Videographers: Robin Kerr (Auckland), Jeremy Brick (Wellington)
Graphic Design: Auckland Live (Auckland), Jason Aldous (Wellington)
Commissioned by Auckland Live
Supported by Creative New Zealand
Number of People in the Touring Party
6
Previous Seasons
Debut season:
Auckland Live Cabaret Season at The Civic Theatre Wintergarden
June 24th, June 26th and July 1st
Sold out season - 814 audience members
Tour season:
BATS Theatre Wellington
15th - 24th July 2021
Sold out season - 676 audience members.
Reviews and Quotes
“Hannah effortlessly evolves across multiple characters iterating messages around female nudity. She artfully unfolds before [our] eyes, moving from a sexier, crazed version of Jessica Rabbit to an earthly version of Lucifer in woman form. Hannah’s versatility in playing both the funny girl and the formidable woman is an outright nod to the power and beauty women have always had but been feared or wasted in a man’s world”.
- Lindsey Brown, Civic Theatre Auckland June 2021
“This work is not the voyeurs’ delight or frivolous novelty with which its name flirts. It very deliberately goes another route. Hannah could readily, deftly deliver the first kind of show. The failure to do so is by design. Every step, beat, strip of the night is carefully placed. The promise of a sensual feast is never gone. It’s always there —postponed indefinitely. Because the possibility remains, Hannah can entice her audience to enter the emotive themes she evokes. What her performance slowly reveals is her consummate craft. She embeds edgy experimental theatre in a glitzy cabaret act. The combination is totally arresting”.
- Mark James Hamilton, Civic Theatre Auckland June 2021
“Hannah shows real rigour and strength as an artist who bravely pushes her advantage. The result is a brilliant piece of dramatic and personal theatre. The compositions by Lucien Johnson are masterfully played – perfect as a social commentary and support for the dance action.
Tasker - Poland delivers a gut- wrenching social and personal opinion statement with command, passion, turmoil and relentless physicality. A tour-de-force, The Most Naked is much much more than a show - it will toy with your senses, twist your mind and send you deep into your own behaviour values and experiences”.
- Deirdre Tarrant, BATS Theatre Wellington July 2021
“Tasker-Poland cleverly withholds any voyeuristic satisfaction. Instead she reserves it for herself. The work continues to turn the gaze around as it leads its audience deeper into the moral panic of nudity, exposing as much in the audience as she does of her own body. This oscillating subject/object-hood is an incredible feature of the work
Johnson’s musical accompaniment matches her performance step by step throughout the show with incredible virtuosity,
Hannah is an incredible performer. She has worked with numerous choreographers and performance makers, but in this show she proves that she can create incredible work of her own, too”.
- Sam Trubridge, BATS Theatre Wellington July 2021
Technical Rider & International Touring Info (if applicable)
- View/download document #1 here
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