The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave

"An international sweaty hell hole and the cesspit I so desire to be trapped in for 48 hours. The likes of the Berlin and New York underground rave scene. I believe another version of myself exists somewhere in a piss-covered club where I’ve chewed through my cheeks and some guy’s kids are spilled down my back. I am galvanized and roused by the rave culture and everything it encompasses.”

Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer present 'The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave', an endurance-based dance work to the seamless techno album 'Nocturbulous Behaviour' by Suburban Knight. Exploring the movement vocabulary used in techno and rave culture, a contemporary nightclub between 3 bodies emerges. Relentless movement, seamless without pause, detailed down to every beat. The atmosphere and culture of a 3-day rave condensed into a high art, streamlined performance where you watch the destruction of 3 human beings commence in front of you. Indulge in the pain, the sweat; a display of pure endurance to achieve a goal. A spectacle of the human body as a victim to music, as a victim to passion, as a victim to our endless desire to achieve more. To win and win again.

The first dance at a wedding, but if the wedding was a funeral. An ode to the past 3-year marathon of losing societal morals and political structure. Our communal loss of work, time, love, sex, eating, fighting, cleaning, holidaying, sleeping, pashing, drinking, throwing up, everything, physicalised as an artifact of what we as a people have endured. And just like listening to a love song that sings to that one breakup you had, 'The Butterfly Who Flew Into the Rave' is an acid house remix that screams f***k you to the pandemic.

The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave is supported by Pride Elevates and is part of the 2024 Auckland Pride Festival programme. Supported by Wellesley Dance Studios, BodyFX, the Rachel Bennett Arts Foundation and in partnership with the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.

Creator, choreographer, and performer: Oli Mathiesen (Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi)

Choreographer and performer: Lucy Lynch (Ngāti Kahungunu)

Choreographer and performer: Sharvon Mortimer (Ngāti Porou)

Producer: Abbie Rogers (Kāi Tahu, Te Arawa)

Production Assistant: Lulu Qiu 邱詩露

Hero Photography: Matt Hurley