Short+Sweet, the ten minute play festival, is busting out this year into Short+Sweet Dance, Short+Sweet Song and Short+Sweet Theatre.

Renee Liang interviewed Lydia Zanetti, Artistic Director for Short+Sweet Dance.

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How did you get involved in Short+Sweet Dance?

Last year was the inaugural season of Short+Sweet Dance in New Zealand and I was asked to be Assistant Producer + Assistant Stage Manager to the then Producer/Artistic Director Carrie-Rae Cunningham. She couldn't do it this year so I got to move up the ranks! Which has been super exciting and challenging too.

Are you a dancer, choreographer, producer...?

In my final year of high school I produced a show at BATS Theatre, Wellington and then I moved to Auckland to train as a contemporary dancer at UNITEC. Choreography has always been very close to my heart and I have made work for a number of shows I have also produced under Sweaty Heart Productions and this mad/wonderful musical called Day After Night last year. So I float between dancer, choreographer, producer, stage manager, production manager, general dogsbody. I like it that way - they all inform each other.

"Contemporary, hip hop, dance theatre, belly dancing, multimedia and much more.." Sounds like a genre busting breeding ground!  What pieces are you looking forward to?

Lots of them! I'm excited to see what a lot of old favourites have been up to - Tessa Martin who is back from Brussels briefly and is bringing up a work from Wellington, Samiam who has grown some hair since I last saw him perform, Wasabi Dance Crew (youth hip hop crew) who I hear have hit puberty and Shani Dickins whose movement vocabulary has always really interested me. There are also some awesome undergrads coming through from Unitec and University of Auckland whose work I really love and the fabulous Phoenix Belly Dance group returning from 2012. I've been sticking my nose into people's rehearsals and when I went to see Phoenix's rehearsal I left blushing..!

What approaches are the dance groups taking to make their work? Anything innovative or unusual?

Cat Ruka makes interesting combinations of different genres and is working with a talented young ballet dancer called Duncan Armstrong for her work. I love the idea of someone who pushes the boundaries collaborating with a performer with such a strong classical background. Performance art ballet..? I'm intrigued.

In S+S theatre, international works are performed alongside work by local writers.... can you do that for dance?

Often dance is made through a choreographer devising with the dancers. Theatre is also a collaborative process but not having a script as a starting point definitely makes international dance work harder to bring in (when you're aiming to adapt it for local dancers). It's something I'd like to look to in the future though - further afield nationally and then internationally. However I firmly believe that a work doesn't need to be from overseas in order to have real clout - and this programme is a bare-knuckle champion.

So come along, see for yourself and vote your favourite through to the Gala Final!

Short+Sweet Dance
AT: The Herald Theatre at The EDGE
FROM: May 28 to June 9