Crows Feet: 12 years old in 2011

In 1999 director Jan Bolwell, at the age of 48, was recovering from two bouts of breast cancer. She began dancing again to aid her recovery. A group of women about Jan's age saw Gaylene Preston’s film about breast cancer Titless Wonders in which Jan dances Off My Chest. They approached Jan and said, ‘We want to dance like that. Will you teach us?’ That’s how Crows Feet Dance Collective was born.

An original group of four grew to eighteen, and in 2009 we included six grandmothers, with the eldest being 69. In 2011 Crows Feet expanded, and we now have three separate dance groups, one in Kapiti and two in Wellington.

Crows Feet’s first public performance took place in 1999 at the launch of Osteoporosis New Zealand at the Michael Fowler Centre. Apart from annual dance concerts we have performed at a number of different events, including a National Midwives Conference, a National Women's Convention, and a Cancer Society conference (2008). We are regular contributors to Wellington's International Dance Day, running classes and demonstrations. In 2008 we performed at the Fringe Festivals in Wellington and Dunedin.

Penny Towns of Inspire Photography, Wellington, takes all our publicity photos, and always has done.

Crows Feet dance works: the archive

We have started to compile an archive of every dance work performed by Crows Feet, complete with photographs. Please be patient: for some time the archive will be incomplete and even at times inaccurate. But it's growing better all the time.

The Crows Feet shows 1999–2011

Each year we perform a new show, which includes at least one original new dance work. A show may consist entirely of new works, or a mix of old and new dances, and it may include guest performers. We reached a milestone in 2011, when three Crows Feet groups performed original work.

Details of the Crows Feet shows

1999: In Shadow Dreaming
2000: Throwing Like a Girl
2001: Patsy Cline
2002: Ancestors
2003: Cross Currents
2004: Dear God, Degas!
2004: Women's Work
2005: The Woman’s Mag
2005: A Motor in my Soul
2006: Going for Baroque
2007 & 2008: Requiem
2009: Choros
2010: How to be a Domestic Goddess—Revue de Cuisine
2011: Angle Poise