TOMO VR
Atamira Dance Company
TOMO VR is the first foray of Atamira Dance Company (Aotearoa/New Zealand) into the world of Virtual Reality where individual headsets take each audience member into an innovative digital experience of the full-length stage work that first premiered in 2019 at Tempo Dance Festival. This VR film captures the dream space with its haunting tale of life and death.
Viewers will find themselves in a cavern of endless time, a world within a world, watching two travelling wairua (the bodiless self) and the generations of ancestors before them. Their mother holds the power of creation within her. She carries them in her womb and is the gateway to the world of light. She is a daughter, a sister and a mother in tapu (sacred). One traveller departs to the world of the living, the other transcends to the embracing arms of Hine Nui Te Pō, the goddess of death.
credits
choreographer, editor Gabrielle Thomas
filmed by, editor Ed Davis
performers Sean MacDonald, Bianca Hyslop, Abbie Rogers, Cory-Toalei Roycroft, Madison Tumataroa
music composition Peter Hobbs
production design Vanda Karolczak
hero image Charles Howells, White Studios
VR film images Ed Davis
Atamira translates as 'platform' or 'stage' and has been the leading creator and presenter of Māori contemporary dance theatre for the past two decades.
Atamira bridges intergenerational urban identity with Maori cultural expression. Collectively we are empowered by devising ancestral and contemporary Māori experiences through our bodies, through dance.
We embody the essence of our unique landscape, which shapes our values, genealogies, and tribal continuity—driven by choreographic and design excellence in an ever-expanding repertoire of local and cross-cultural dance works.
As a dance company, we offer a rich and diverse programme developed by high-calibre choreographers and dancers. Our wananga research-based practice is a process of deep collaboration and genuine openness to risk-taking and experimentation.
Audiences experience unforgettable performances by dancers driven by a solid visionary team. We are here to celebrate and share our Māori culture through the arts and to grow audience engagement worldwide through cultural innovation.