Dance Research Aotearoa
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Memorials for lost environments: Participatory practice and minimal ethics
No full textParticipatory performance can respond to differing temporal and spatial perspectives of Anthropogenic climate change as an embodied practice of 'minimal ethics' (Zylinska, 2014). By taking up the theme of 'survival', performatively I explore questions of survival in relation to the individual and larger society through the survival of being-with as a 'new' modality for living on this earth and beyond our selves (Heidegger, 1996). I draw the Poetics of Failure (Bailes, 2011) and Schneider (2011) in the creation of performance rituals that activate presence through absence. This paper discusses the performance walk, Be for barefoot - A survival walk on Ocean Beach in Dunedin, Otago, as a mobile community enacting a memorial emerging from the remains of personal and environmental tragedy. The walking and sharing of stories of survival contributes to rituals of wellbeing as a way to create hope in the face of environmental uncertainty
Dance and Place: Body Weather, globalisation and Aotearoa
No full textThis article will explore the relationship between dance and place. Using the work of Body Weather (BW) practitioners such as Snow (2006), Grant & de Quincey (2006), and Taylor (2010), this article will explore their unique viewpoints and somatic approaches to engaging with place. Also the works of other scholars and movement practitioners will be used to investigate how place shapes dance practices (Alexeyeff, 2009; Brown, 1997; Gray, 2010; Mazer, 2007; Savigliano, 2009). BW threads within the Aotearoa/New Zealand contemporary dance scene will be traced, culminating in suggestions about the implications for practicing BW in an Aotearoa context. How understandings of movement can emerge from different environments is the focus of the research
Looking back: Contemporary dance: A Māori perspective (part one and two)
No full textThis article by Stephen Bradshaw begins with a reprint of his article originally commissioned by Creative New Zealand in July 2001 and subsequently published in Moving to the future. Ngā whakanekeneke atu ki te Ao o Apōpō, a strategy document for professional contemporary dance 2001-2003. In this article, Bradshaw investigated significant issues in the development of Māori contemporary dance over thirty years. Bradshaw offered a personal perspective as practitioner and narrated some of the meetings between Māori and contemporary dance, specific wānanga in which Māori artists investigated culturally appropriate ways of using theatre dance arts, and discussing examples of cultural exchange. Bradshaw engaged with key issues and definitions relating to inter-cultural and intra-cultural exchange and offered an understanding of continuum Māori dance that was timely and insightful. The second part of this article contains Bradshaw's response to this article (2002), with a focus on strategies in the support and establishment of Māori contemporary dance in recent years. Complimentary to Bradshaw's work is the subsequent article in this issue of Dance Research Aotearoa by Jack Gray in which he responds to Bradshaw's comments as a current contemporary dance practitioner
When a ngarara bit the taniwha's tail: Education, the arts and the third space
No full textIn the mid-seventies Arnold Manaaki Wilson began a programme that ran for over two decades and challenged our education system. He described his programme, Te Mauri Pakeaka, as a ngarara, a pesky insect that bit the tail of the sleeping taniwha (monster) that represents Māori knowledge, values and arts within the education processes of Aotearoa. He used the arts as a catalyst for schools and communities to revaluate the role of all things Māori within the education system, and he held his workshops on marae (extended family and tribal home base) throughout the country. Thousands participated: students, teachers, principals, departmental administrators, kaumatua (male elders), parents and artists. However, in the devolution of educational responsibilities that took place under the name of Tomorrow's Schools (Minister of Education, 1988) Arnold was retired and the programme stopped. The legacy lives in the altered awareness of participants, in the arts works in whare kai (dining rooms) around the country, and in ways of exploring dance and drama, but, while Arnold's reputation as an artist is widely acknowledged, his role as an educator and as an agent of educational change is not. Perhaps it was too challenging
Looking back: Being kaitiaki: A response to contemporary dance - A Māori perspective
No full textIn this article I respond to Stephen Bradshaw's reprinted article in which he investigated significant issues in the development of Māori contemporary dance in the forty years prior to 2002 when the article was published. Bradshaw offered a personal perspective as practitioner and narrated some of the meetings between those involved in Māori and contemporary dance, specific wānanga in which Māori artists investigated culturally appropriate ways of using theatre dance arts, and discussing examples of cultural exchange. Bradshaw engaged with key issues and definitions relating to inter-cultural and intra-cultural exchange and offered an understanding of continuum Māori dance that was timely and insightful. My purpose in the article is to respond to Bradshaw's work as a current contemporary dance practitioner myself and to engage with how I interpret 'being kaitiaki'. I offer examples of my experiences in defining myself as a Māori contemporary dancer, in my activism and in my use of social media as a site for activism
Dancing in different tongues: A surplus of meaning in illuminating indigenous terrains of contemporary dance
No full textIn this article, contesting the belief that dance is a universal, nonverbal language, I consider the different dance languages used by indigenous contemporary dancers to express their worldviews. I also explore, how as dance languages intertwine with or run parallel to verbal languages, performances result in 'dancing in different tongues'. Setting out to illuminate 21st century indigenous terrains of intercultural contemporary dance, I follow a trail of thoughts that emerged during my role as co-convenor for the 2013 Atarau Symposium: Illuminating Indigenous Terrains of Intercultural Dance. Along this trajectory I find contemporary relevance in the semiotics of C. S. Peirce as a means of interpreting two indigenous contemporary dances made in New Zealand. In exploring how these dances function expressively I aim to clarify ways in which indigenous contemporary dance can create a surplus of meaning and how a semiotic translation can illuminate the various cultural terrains in the dancing
Sustaining Māori indigenous performative knowledge: Engaging practices that foster ihi within a contemporary dance theatre context
No full textIn this article I explore the creative potential of Māori indigenous performative knowledge such as ihi. My research investigated personal experiences as a performer and choreographer during the creative process, exploring and engaging with practices that foster ihi within contemporary performance. I draw on practice-led research methods in the choreographic and performance process of creating a duet called Ngā Whaiaipo o te Roto - Lovers of the Lake, performed in the Auckland Tempo Dance Festival (Williams, 2012). By exploring Māori concepts of performance within contemporary dance practices, I explored the potential to sustain indigenous knowledge, meanings and connections in how Māori cultural concepts are transferred into a theatre context
Searching for Bliss: Insights and challenges in yoga and contemporary dance choreography
No full textIn this article I discuss a research project exploring how yoga-based movement motifs might be developed within choreography for performance, while retaining a focus on wellbeing for all involved. In attending to our wellbeing, I consider creative processes, preparation, rehearsals, sequencing of the movements in the choreography and the choice of specific yoga movements. Within the process of creating two dance works, a number of insights and challenges arose relating to our diverse and shared understandings of wellbeing, and also our integrity in performance. Drawing on research findings in the form of dancers’ reflections, images from the performances, my choreographer’s journal notes and our embodied methodology, I combine different representational methods to share some of these insights and challenges