When Boiski turned up

15 August 2008
When the three-legged dog gate-crashed the party, he sidled up to Tim Turner and looked into the artist’s eyes. There was, says Tim, an instant bond.

“We’d been to a festival and were staying at Riwaka, near Nelson, when Boiski turned up. The next day, we tracked down his owner and she gave him to me,” Tim recalls. “That’s how Boiski came to live with me in the big city.”

That was in 2001. Up until Boiski’s death in late 2005, the two shared all sorts of adventures in Auckland and beyond – including performances in the Touch Compass Dance Trust work Acquisitions 03 at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland in 2003.

So how did a three-legged dog and a guy whose left leg had been amputated after a motorbike accident end up dancing for Touch Compass? Tim says he was “bribed” by Catherine Chappell, the company’s artistic director.

Turning Mobility project

At the time, Tim was organising an art exhibition of work by New Zealand and Balinese artists at the Depot Artspace in Devonport. The aim of the exhibition, one of the activities of the Turning Mobility project, was to raise funds to buy crutches for children in Bali. “A friend told me about this fantastic dance company and said I should get them to perform at the exhibition.”

In Michele Powles' book, Touch Compass: Celebrating Integrated Dance (David Ling Publishing), Tim describes his initial meeting with Catherine. "I think Cath was surprised when she walked in and Boiski and I both greeted her minus a limb. Moments later, Boiski did a Contact roll down Cath's leg, and a few minutes later Cath did 'a deal' with me: Touch Compass would perform at the opening if myself and Boiski would join the dance company."

Three weeks later, Boiski and Tim, who had never danced in his life, were rehearsing Acquistions 03 with the other Touch Compass dancers. Established in 1995, the company includes dancers with and without a disability.

“Working with Touch Compass has really opened me up to myself and to see ways I can help make a difference,” Tim says. “It blows me away to see the other dancers at work, the emotional content of what they do, and their strength.”

As well as dancing, Tim has started to teach Touch Compass movement and dance workshops in schools and the community. Later this year, he will be travelling to Europe to take a workshop with acclaimed integrated dance teacher Alito Alessi.

Autobiography

A freelance artist, Tim just about does it all – although he says he can’t paint. A sculptor, mixed-media artist, jeweller, filmmaker, dancer and poet, he says: “I’d like to write my autobiography one day. So many things have happened in my life and I’d like to write about them.”

So where did all the creativity spring from? Was it unleashed as the result of his motorbike accident when he was 18 and the loss of his leg?

Tim, now 44, says the loss of his leg in 1982 led initially to a period of self-destruction and it took him a long time to realise he could live happily with his disability. Travelling to India and Indonesia in 2000 provided spiritual healing and he returned to New Zealand with a new outlook on life.

He founded the Turning Mobility project, organised an exhibition of work by New Zealand and Balinese artists, and raised $6200. In 2004, he returned to Bali with three dozen pair of crutches, two wheelchairs and a cash donation to an organisation, Yakkum Bali, so it could run workshops for people with disabilities to learn how to use their creativity.

He also started to carve stone, make creative clothing and explore photography, and realised he had artistic talents he had never used before. “But I’m from a very artistic family and I’ve always been around creative people, so it was probably inevitable.”