Nicola Hawkins
Directing
Biography
Nicola Hawkins began her professional career as a stage director and choreographer when she moved to Boston, USA, from her native England and founded the Nicola Hawkins Dance Company (1993-2005). The award winning critically acclaimed company was known for its visually striking productions, drawing large audiences in Boston, New England and New York City. The Boston Herald noted: "There isn't anything that Nicola Hawkins does demurely...the work is the evidence of Hawkins' staggering ability to generate fresh and atypical dances...all of them accompanied by live musicians". The Boston Globe noted: "Over the years, she has amassed an impressive repertoire of works that are musically sophisticated and theatrically alluring." In 2006, Nicola emigrated to rural Newfoundland, Canada, and immersed herself in her visual art practice. In 2011, she had a one woman show at the Provincial Gallery of Art and two others at the Provincial Craft Council Gallery. Most recently she returned to directing and choreographing for both stage and film. In 2021, with collaborators Duo Concertante, Nicola directed Duo Concertante's Solace: four videos exploring themes of reconciliation, peace, understanding, and communion through the music of Dawn Avery, Alice Ho, Jessie Montgomery and Cesar Franck. In 2022, she made Circle of Truth and Scored by Time, two narrative shorts without dialogue.
Known For
An old hermit, living with his ducks in the woods, is kidnapped for not conforming by the state's children's army. In prison the old man undergoes a torturous re-education by fierce classical musicians. A courageous fellow prisoner heals him with love and they attempt an escape.
Birds Two by Two
End of the Line, which features Jessie Montgomery's PEACE, is a visual pilgrimage of one person's journey from big city lockdown to finding solace in the landscape of the natural world.
End of the Line
Each spring Newfoundland farmers in my community take their sheep by open boat to a predator free island for sustainable grazing. The herd grazes on lush grass, drinks from freshwater springs; and exists without human intervention. The seasonal consumption of the grass along with the manure has maintained a yearly supply of lush organic pasture. Before the winter freeze the sheep are collected along with their healthy new born lambs. This joy filled, sustainable tradition has been practiced for generations.
Ba Baa Shangri La
A chance meeting of an art activist and a pompous Sunday painter at a public statue of Winston Churchill turns into a public event of insults in this political satire.
Colonial Rocks
On Hold, by choreographer and visual artist Nicola Hawkins of Admiral's Cove, Newfoundland is a striking movement piece that distills tenderness, honesty, and grief. The performers, actor John Moyes and his daughter, dancer-storyteller Louise Moyes, commissioned the film in their 80th and 52nd years. Cinematographer and editor Lisa Porter. Composer Adam Foran. Shot at the Ferryland lighthouse, Newfoundland.
On Hold
Newfoundland violin and piano classical team Duo Concertante perform a moving piece by Dawn Avery, and director Nicola Hawkins accompanies with striking mixed media imagery.
Eternal Return
Newfoundland’s Duo Concertante perform the Juno-nominated classical composition “Coeur À Coeur” by Canada’s Alice Ping Yee Ho. This piece is conceived as an imaginary conversation between two voices: exchanging inner thoughts, and it pairs beautifully with the footage of northern gannets at Cape St. Mary’s.
Free Fall
Circle of Truth is a short film without dialogue set to an original score. On the island of Newfoundland, Canada, a man alone in his rural home awaits the spring thaw with the arrival of hardy plants, insects and birds. The film tracks his daily labour though the seasons as he builds, tends and harvests a circular garden enriched by the bounty of seaweed and fish that he gathers from the island's shore. His dedication to the earth that feeds him and his intimacy with his natural surroundings reveals a portrait of an unadorned purposeful life.