Ka Mua Ka Muri, walking backwards into the future. Dynamic and frequently exhilarating contemporary dance as a portrait of Māori culture flying in the Glorious Present.
Presented by the Atamira Dance Company and two of its acclaimed choreographers.
Remain by Eddie Elliott (Ngati Maniapoto) is the travel back in time. The intertwining of ancestry and genealogy. How we situate ourselves in connection to land and the gene pool we have come through.
Whakamaheahea by Bianca Hyslop (Te Arawa) is the urban (or suburban) Māori experience. Understanding history including the difficult and tragic, but forging identity as mutable and transformative.
Wearing the scramble suit from Philip K.Dick’s Scanner Darkly. In the novel and movie, it was meant to hide of blur identity. It can also be an adaptive mechanism in a world where identity politics is instantly polarising.
This spiritual world view is shared by ancient civilisations.
The Australian Aboriginals are one the oldest, being the fourth major racial subtype after Caucasian, Asian and Black African.
There is only the glorious Present Time on the apex of a pyramid. The past and the future stretch out equidistantly and can be considered equivalent.
This cosmic view also exists in ancient Hindu. There has never been a time where you and I have never existed. Krishna to Radha.
Which means that present time co-exists simultaneously with everything that has been, and everything that is to come.
To break the tyranny of time is equally a spiritual practice and a physical (i.e. scientific) one.
Quantum physics has discovered entanglement, so does this prove that thought travels faster than the speed of light?
There has been spirited debate and controversy with the attempt to include Māori spirituality and folklore into scientific disciplines especially at the tertiary level.
Opponents point out that scientific endeavour is not governed by race or ethnic ancestry. But there can be a point where mythology and understanding the physical world intermingle.
Like the dancers who can clump together, lie along and roll on top of each other (Remain). Until one is dominant enough to arise.
Three females and three males make for a balanced dance troupe who perform splendidly.
Both works merge into each other. There is no intermission.
Abbie Rogers, Caleb Heke, Madi Tumataroa, Oli Mathiesen, Tai Taranui Hemana, Toalei Roycroft.
The preamble to Remain is very informal. The six gather front of stage and welcome audience, whilst talking about the nervousness of the first performance.
Casually segue into the performance proper. Informality has broken the ice.
This is a historic event one of the dancers insists and repeats through the first half.
Several moments of anger, anguish, pain and bodies subjected to invisible forces.
Fast sequences are incredibly well-choreographed, and the level of athletic ability and sheer physical strength seem close to Olympic gymnastics level.
Whakamaheahea does convey more detachment and a less visceral atmosphere.
A sparkling barrier in the middle of the stage first appears to divide the space in half. Imperceptibly it transitions ninety degrees to divide front and back.
It feels like a Matrix interface. Dancers keep crossing the cosmic barrier between parallel worlds.
The first part emphasised Māori connection to the land coupled with lineage and was quite hot and visceral.
The second half maybe reflects how much has changed with colonisation and the idea of mutable identity with a global village.
Ka Mua Ka Muri, with its game of two halves, has some fun playing in the eternal present moment whilst the past and future are equal. I’m sure we see a haka at some stage.
Rev. Orange Peel