2019:
THE UNFOLDING:
A performance experience as a part of the gloaming, a night of Horror Choreography, within the Tempo Festival. The night was curated by Tru Paraha, and also featured Charles Koroneho, Virginia Kennard, Kelly Nash and i.e. crazy. The Unfolding was an experiment with images drawn from life as a parent, developed through the lens of somatics. These were collided with themes of climate crises and tsunami and folded in with stories of my own whakapapa as starting points for movement and imagery.
The process was consciously engaging parents within the performance community, as well as younger artists. I was intentionally offering a different way of working together, across many months, using movement forms that were based in image work and rehabilitative and somatic practices, as well as allowing space for the individuals to bring themselves and their own movement requirements to the work and our process. This was to create a way of working that was as easy and enjoyable as possible for all involved, whilst still being engaging and challenging for all levels of experience.
Here are some quotes from reviews of the night regarding this work:
https://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=11934
"Nightcapping this killer of a night off, “The Unfolding”, a five femme fatale crew under directorship of Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann, struck well the fatal blow.
Behind a large handmade blue curtain made from various of cuts of bedsheet strung across the stage via bamboo, Claire O'Neil with hands and head poking through and wearing a cosmetic beauty mask, gains our attention by shaking a large woven basket of toys, in time with toddler Matariki’s cries. The eventual spillage brings a cathartic shift, and allows for introduction of the other performers, also wearing beauty masks, to emerge from behind the scenes. Much is active in this work, with strong images invoked, but it’s the timely and clear unison that offers the eye space to resolve the emergent themes as well as props presented.- Highlights are many in the air-filled surgical gloves tied together to create two separate parasitic type bodies, one blue and one white, disguising Rucksthul-Mann, and performer Claire Luiten as they move. These performing objects need to have a life beyond Friday night, as do the billowing duvet covers that were unfolded and then filled in unison by roaming trio Liana Yew, Katrina George and Rewa Fowles, reforming the covers by a simple walking pattern into sculptural assemblages.
These final two montages and movement sequences have the strongest visual impact. A high stilettoed casually-circling femme fatale (Claire Luiten), with a row of large kitchen knives strapped to her lumbar, brings with deliberate stealth, forward one knife at time to the front of the body before from waist height dropping them near and in front of the living sculptural forms. This action, as well as the clunk of the knife as it strikes and stays upright in the hall floor, is oddly satisfying. Reemerging out of the duvet covers once all the knives are dispensed of, the trio proceed to pick the knives up from out of the floor before moving to collectively join Luiten in forming a KALI shaped deity (the Hindu goddess of death), the knives all the while carving sensually through the air before Luiten slips away, leaving the 3 femme fatale figures to journey, snaking their knife wielding hands slowly downstage towards the audience.
This image is further encapsulated by the looming of the broad blue curtain turned tsunami, curling above them with successful and deadly intent to engulf both performers and audience members. Upstage, at the same time a large jar of ‘blood’ (beetroot juice) is left to spill down the length of the old folks floor." Forest Kapo
WAANANGA KANIKANI X:
A curated experience of opening, easing into, welcoming, nourishing and inclusivity.
The intention was to provide a way into the Experimental Dance Week that allowed space and time for reconnection between people, for nourishment of physical and emotional requirements, and for whānau of all ages to be able to be present and included. It also was the first time that the hall had been used as a venue to sleep in for the purposes of extended community experiences. There was a range of people who attended for different parts of the weekend, and the overall feedback was that participants felt like they could relax, whilst at the same time be engaged with the kaupapa of the various offerings over the course of the wānanga.
The intention was to provide a way into the Experimental Dance Week that allowed space and time for reconnection between people, for nourishment of physical and emotional requirements, and for whānau of all ages to be able to be present and included. It also was the first time that the hall had been used as a venue to sleep in for the purposes of extended community experiences. There was a range of people who attended for different parts of the weekend, and the overall feedback was that participants felt like they could relax, whilst at the same time be engaged with the kaupapa of the various offerings over the course of the wānanga.
2018:
TE OHU:
Whilst not strictly a performance, I consider that much of my work can be seen as a collaborative experience to activate the movement and connection of bodies and geographies in the same way that performances can do. During a four day waananga I facilitated two movement sessions for a large group of people who came together to workshop what it could mean to create a "Living Village" in the rohe of Tuhoe. These sessions connected physical and spiritual concepts, activating and strengthening both in order to open up bodies and minds of those who took part to the potential of their contribution to the workshop and the place of the waananga itself.
https://issuu.com/teurutaumatua/docs/te_ohu_2018
Here is a link to a document detailing more about the waananga.
WHANAU FRIENDLY MOVEMENT PLAY (AUCKLAND):
https://issuu.com/teurutaumatua/docs/te_ohu_2018
Here is a link to a document detailing more about the waananga.
WHANAU FRIENDLY MOVEMENT PLAY (AUCKLAND):
A day of movement activities for whanau to come and explore ways of moving and playing together based on contact improvisation, somatic movement, art play and Body Mind Centering.
WHANAU FRIENDLY CONTACT JAMS (AUCKLAND):
Creating spaces for more people to move, play and find joy through dance and somatic practices.
2016:
MYTHOLOGICAL MOTHERHOOD (AUCKLAND):
A collaboration with Clare Luiten for the Undisciplining Dance Symposium at The University of Auckland. We we lucky enough to be supported by Wellesley Studios as resident artists in order to develop this work, exploring ideas of motherhood and failure. Three small 'moments' were presented over two days during the Symposium using the material developed during the residency.
Another collaboration with Clare Luiten, this time a light hearted exploration of the taboos of touching others in public, through the offering of a collaborative game that participants of the Whau Arts Festival could choose to engage in upon entering the venue. People were asked to work in pairs to transport fruit from one side of a room to another, where they were then asked to cut up this fruit and string it onto a piece of string, whilst blindfolded. These fruit strings were strung together in a large 'fruit loop' and were later eaten without using hands in a collaborative eating act.
SEVEN SISTERS (DUNEDIN):
A dance performance created by Cathy Livermore in collaboration with Jessica Latton of Ake Are Dance Company. This piece was about wellbeing, of individuals, communities and environments. This was a site-specific event, placed in The Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and involved performers and contributions from around the world through video, sound and live performance.
As stated by the ODT the work, the aim of the work is about "Sharing ideas and insights about wellbeing with the wider community"
https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/dance-project-puts-wellbeing-centre-stage
https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/dance-project-puts-wellbeing-centre-stage
WAI KŌRERO (AUCKLAND):
An event-performance exploring waters, bodies and memories through practices of yoga, collaboration, somatics and improvisation. This extended on my masters research into intersections of Māori and somatic worldviews and performance practices, and aimed to be inclusive of children as well as adult participants.
An event-performance exploring waters, bodies and memories through practices of yoga, collaboration, somatics and improvisation. This extended on my masters research into intersections of Māori and somatic worldviews and performance practices, and aimed to be inclusive of children as well as adult participants.
WATER FEELS (MELBOURNE):
A second iteration of the Wai Kōrero performance, this time in Melbourne.
A second iteration of the Wai Kōrero performance, this time in Melbourne.
2013:
TŪĀHU WORKSHOP AND PUBLIC PERFORMANCE (Auckland):
As a participant in Charles Koroneho’s workshop and collaborative performance, I developed ideas of somatic performance as a performer/mother. “Concepts explored during the 6-day performance workshop were performance training, solo choreography, improvisation, performance devising and collaboration. On the final day of the workshop participants incorporating production elements towards a directed showing of solo performance facilitated by Charles Koroneho in collaboration with Sean Curham.” (This explanation is from Charles Koroneho’s website: http://tuahu.tetokiharuru.com/tuahu-korero/previous/2)
2012:
AH HĀ:
Final Masters performance
A group of about 20 people were lead through a process of experiencing their bodies in relation to stories and memories of water, and balloons filled with different temperature waters. They were taken on a performative ‘tour’ of Auckland following the path of an old stream, the Wai Horotiu, now under Queen Street.
RIVER CROSSING:
An invitation to wait, to attend to the space of an entry, the threshold into the building, into the archives and into a space of memory. An invitation to link with another person, time, place. An invitation to walk with me across and up a river, to create a river with our steps.
The performance of River Crossing involved an extended entry into the Artspace building, starting with an informal kind of welcome, replete with the removal of shoes. It asked people to form groups of threes by linking arms, in which they would ascend the stairs to the Film Archive space. A question was asked of; Why water? Wai? Water? Another question was asked of which waters were we walking through, or across, or which waters were we creating? Each trio was asked to consider these questions and at the conclusion of our walk, tell me their answer, negotiated through the journey up stairs and their conversation.
At the top of the stairs, drinks were served, each trio still negotiating the stairs, the doorways, the questions, and each other. Inside the Film Archive exihibtion space were placed three buckets of warm water, initially meant for the relief of those in gumboots, but ended up being appropriated by many who were not walking up 'frozen' rivers. When inside the space each trio declared the river they were walking, and donated some of their beverage to our gumboots, thereby sullying the 'purity' of the boot's glacial river, and turning them into a kind of drain.
Finally the boots were left behind along with socks, hats and scarves, feet were warmed by the buckets of warm water, and the alcoholic river-turned-drain was left as evidence of the event. Multiple questions of how archives are created, for what reason and by whom, how they are collected (in this case by bodies, objects and conversations), and for what reason might they be accessed again (for social cohesion, connections to particular places or events as being important for individual or communal identities), were made evident in a subtle exploration of the power of sensation to evoke and provide evidence for the relations between people, place, time and bodies.
Part of a month-long performance series, Forever Tuesdays hosted by the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Film Archive, curated by Campbell Farquhar and Kristian Larsen, including performances by Sean Curham, Alexa Wilson, Anna Bate, Brent Harris, Mark Harvey, Val Smith and Cat Ruka. Each performance responded to the conditions provided by and questions raised by the content and form of the Film Archive.
VLTAVA/WILD WATERS:
Vltava act started at the point where the city meets the river. Its story was developed from myths and facts surrounding the location. Together with ritual and insight from the international student team, the global became local and the local became global. The Third Act took place on the Slovasnky Island (Žofín) on June 20, 2011.
http://scenofest.pq.cz/six-acts/photo-gallery-six-acts/
SHIFTING TAMAKI/AUCKLAND/UTRECHT:
A 27 km walk from Woerden to Utrecht along the Oude Rijn in The Netherlands. Tracing and re-performing walks and stories from two hemispheres, three walkers engage in an intimate conversation with each other, themselves, the landscape and a smattering of friends across the world via Facebook. This was another iteration of Walking (Laing)Home performed as a part of the PSI Conference.
TWO WATERS:
Juxtaposing Waititiko/Meola Creek with Mt Albert Wave pool, a somatic journey was undertaken to uncover the ways in which we can experience and transform ourselves, our perception of these waters and the waters themselves. Participants were lead on a slow walk, a performance of a traditional initiation rite involving a drop of water into their ears, and invitation to bathe in the polluted waters of the creek. Then followed an investigation of the swimming pool as the contemporary construction of rejuvenation and community health, and the sonic and aural possibilities of listening underwater.
GASTROPODEANS:
Two travellers start on a journey of transformation. They carry a backpack each and slowly ascend the stairs to a flat/theatre. "What do you know about snails?" they ask each new patron. The show starts and they still move, transforming from human to snail form, seeking a path through the crowd, they feel and make felt the space between each audience member. Boundaries of skin and touch melt away in their ambiguous form. What is it, who is it? Finally finding the 'stage' a scene out of Metamorphosis emerges and continues through beyond the first act, transforming back to bipedal modes of moving.
2011
TE KAROHIROHI/THE LIGHT DANCES:
The second iteration of Louise Potiki Bryant and Charles Royal's collaborative performance piece within the annual Whare Tapere event held on the Royal Farm on the coast of the Hauraki Gulf.
2010
THE NARWHAL AND THE BULL
A collaborative dance performance with Anja Packham as a part of Te Ngaru Hou The New Wave, contemporary dance performances by indigenous choreographers, within The Dunedin Fringe Festival. Other performances were by Louise Potiki Bryant and Vicki Van Hout.
"Whakapapa – The act of layering upon one another, to make relations between.
The Narwhal and the Bull explores the shifting process of creating our own landscapes; of culture, identity, and environment. This is an ever evolving and reciprocal cycle of transformation, a feedback loop between inner and outer stimulii.
The ideas of transformation and evolution are applied to our bodies and identities in relation to our immediate surroundings. As both bodies and scapes move, each takes on parts of each other, an evolution of form and meaning."
TE KAROHIROHI
A performance based on research by Charles Royal, choreographed by Louise Potiki-Bryant. Charles' research looks at written and oral histories about traditional Maori performing arts, collectively referred to as Te Whare Tapere. This was performed Waitangi Weekend 2010, and will be performed again in 2011.
POINTS OF CONTACT (New Plymouth):
A performer in the restaging of Jim Allen’s Points of Contact series. “ At its core Contact speaks about a release from social alienation through collective activity—literally ‘making contact’. The three elements—Computer Dance, Parangole Capes and Body Articulation/Imprint—deploy formal structures in which the interplay of bodies use movement, form, sound and light to strive for transcendence.” (Quote from Artspace’s website: http://www.artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2011/jimallencontact2011.asp)
WELCOME PIECE:
A 'woman' stands in front of the entrance to a flat/theatre. She opens the door. She closes the door. She stands in the threshold. She waits and listens. She lets you in. She denies you entry. A cross between a homeless Mann and a powhiri, what happens when you don't know how to approach the space between outside and inside? What happens when someone inhabits this space? How do you negotiate your own presumptions and the actions of an unknown entity?
A 40 minute performance piece as a part of the first Theatre 466 event on the 12th of December 2010.
RE:WALKING (LAING)HOME
A re-performance of a performance walk, spatially condensing a 27km walk from Queens Wharf to Laingholm into a building, yet keeping the temporal dimension of the 'original' eight hour duration.
A temporal map of 5 Mount Street, Auckland CBD.
Photographic documentation of the re-performance. Photos by Emily O'Hara
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=139566932745906
WALKING (LAING)HOME
A walking performance from Queens Wharf to Laingholm with Becca Wood, exploring aspects of mapping, archives, landscape, technology and the notion of re-performance as a way of creating space and defining place.
and
Screen shots from video archives taken along the way.
Some of the texts sent and received on the walk.
A survey of gear.
URBAN DEVAS
Urban performance by Carol Brown and Phil Dadson, as part of the Auckland City Council's A Week of Kindness.
See: http://www.carolbrowndances.com/projects.php?pid=73
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drtearne/sets/72157623748520003/with/4527543538/
2009:
TANK MAN TANGO
A world-wide performance happening simultaneously via internet technology. The performance commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Massacre, and was based upon the actions of 'Tank Man', famously caught on camera standing in front of the Chinese army tanks. Armed with plastic shopping bags and a black and white uniform, we joined hundreds of people around the world in a movement memorial to the brave action of one person.
The performance was conceived by Deborah Kelly from Sydney.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2CXW2Z0WYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPMwPwns8BE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMBTuFbLQH4&feature=related
WAUCKLAND
A collaborative choreography with Naressa Gamble as part of The Cross Street Studios BANG! BANG! CARAVEL Auckland Fringe Festival Program. Exploring ideas about experiencing Auckland city through inhabiting its streets and the idea of ingesting a place to create personal connections with it.
DESTROY! BOX WARS DANCE
A dance to kick start the Box Wars as part of the 2009 Cross Street Carnival.
Music by David Good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA_F_JA26mI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1V9z2UwHM&NR=1
2007
PLAYSTICITY:
In collaboration with Lucia Sanchez and Lewis Waite, a dance video exploring the creative affordances of Dunedin's public architecture.
