DANCE
COURTESY ATAMIRA DANCE COLLECTIVE
The Atamira Dance Collective will perform the ambitious "Ngai Tahu 32" on Sunday at the UH-Manoa campus.
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Stories from home
Contemporary Maori dance troupe draws upon the recollections of relatives for inspiration
It took a long time for a talented group of Maori dancers to make it to Hawaii from Aotearoa, aka New Zealand, but it was worth it.
Atamira Dance Collective
Where: Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaii-Manoa
When: 4 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $10 to $20 advance, $15 to $25 at the door
Call: 483-7123 or online etickethawaii.com
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And you couldn't ask for a better place for the Atamira Dance Collective to make its first visit to the United States than its Pacific outpost.
One of the unique things about the contemporary dance group that it is a working collective. The nine members have
dual roles of dancer and choreographer, including Atamira's creative producer and manager Dolina Wehipeihana.
Ever since Atamira and the University of Hawaii dance programs first met, in 2005 at a contemporary dance conference in Wellington, N.Z., the Maoris have been meaning to visit our islands, Wehipeihana said, and now that they've finally acquired the funding to get here, they've felt a kinship with our people and native culture.
Atamira is currently in the midst of an interisland tour, and despite the unusual weather -- from snow at the top of Haleakala on Maui to flash flooding in Hilo -- Hawaii still presents an island culture familiar to home.
While the 8-year-old group takes its name from the native word for stage, its artistic intention derives a deeper meaning that includes providing a platform for the values of their ancestors and elders. "What's gone on before influences the choices we make," Wehipeihana said. "Our dances draws on our history, as we do use traditional Maori motifs and movements in our work."
Atamira's program Sunday at UH-Manoa's Kennedy Theatre includes shorter works from its repertoire, including excerpts from "Memoirs of Active Service," based on the diary of Maaka Pepene's grandfather, whose recollections include his time with the 28th Maori Battalion in World War II. "Whakairo," choreographed by Moss Patterson, is based on the Maori art of carving, and "Kohatu" is a duet choreographed by Louise Potiki-Bryant with Waimihi Hotere accompanying in waiata (traditional song), originally performed on a beach.
COURTESY ATAMIRA DANCE COLLECTIVE
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The main dance will be "Ngai Tahu 32," an ambitious piece choreographed by Potiki-Bryant that includes video projection, set design and an evocative sound-score that incorporates waiata, haka (traditional war dance) and karanga (a woman's call of welcome).
Bryant said the piece draws from her own family history and whakapapa, or genealogy and tribal links.
"The dance encompasses a lot of ideas," she said, "and it relates to all the stories handed down through the generations." Her inspiration came from a story about her great-great-great-grandfather Wiremu Potiki, who lived during the 1800s and was an elder with the Ngai Tahu, the main Maori tribe of the country's South Island. The dance's title comes from a file number at the Ngai Tahu Corporation office. Created in 1848, the file details a major sale of tribal land to the ruling British crown. Potiki was a signatory.
"The consequences of the negotiated sale were not entirely fulfilled, so I have the elder start his journey through time with the load of coins from the land sale, and how it relates to him and his descendants, with stories of his son and his son's funeral. It's the way the elder dealt with the tradition of old ways and British rule, and what would happen if he continued to walk into the future, heading towards a vision of a girl that's a positive symbol.
"The haka dance style is the link between all the characters, with each unique take on the haka performed in different ways, depending on what each character is going through, whether as a drunk busing on the streets for money, to finally reaching the end with love and hope."
COURTESY ATAMIRA DANCE COLLECTIVE
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