Story: Contemporary dance

In 1980 Impulse Dance Theatre performed at Evans Bay Intermediate in Wellington as part of a schools tour. During the performance Michael Dickinson (pictured), encased in a long green stocking, rolled out onto the stage then crawled towards and into a crowd of children, whose screams and laughter filled the hall.

Impulse dancers, like those in many other companies, were a versatile bunch – the costume Dickinson is wearing was probably made by one of them – and not highly paid. The company folded in 1982, when the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council cut its funding.