Kelly Nash &
Nancy Wijohn
Two Māori dancers engage in the abstract circling of Te Hā, Te Kā the breath and the fire, seen here as many fangled creatures who whip around the various landscapes of Aotearoa, NZ together.
You are a many-fangled earthly one.
Your appendages whip up the island’s black sand.
You lope through the dry bush with time past time present time future.
You are running towards the queer and ineffable,
Towards a world-ing that acknowledges the fleshly life of all things.
Your eye invites burrowing.
It is holey and full of caverns, like a loaf of sprung bread.
An other is dancing in the crust of your iris, and everything is leavened with music.
The cloth rips. The air pullulates with stuffing. Small promises amidst the island’s parched earth.
The body is an island, but the island is also a body.
By writer collaborator, Amit Noy
credits
directors, producers Kelly Nash & Nancy Wijohn
key cast Nancy Wijohn, Taane Mete
director of photography, editor Joshua Faleatua
costume Daniel Williams
composer Eden Mullholland
Mātauranga Māori advisor, vocalist Tūi Matira Ranapiri-Ransfield
vocalist Milly Kimberly-Grant
sculpture Chris O'Connore
Kelly Nash is a queer, cross cultural, movement based artist and director with a long career as a performer, teacher and choreographer in New Zealand. She is a descendant of Ngāpuhi and Ngāiterangi with English, Irish and Baltic ancestry.
Nancy Wijohn (Te Rarawa, Ngai Tūhoe) is known for her powerhouse performances, strength, grace and athleticism. She has collaborated with many international artists and continues to diversify her skills to include project management and creative producing for Māori, Pakeha and Pacific artists.
Kelly & Nancy have been prolific dance artists in New Zealand working with established companies such as Atamira Dance Company, Douglas Wright and Good Company together. They have created their own work which led them to establish Body Island in 2020. The pandemic moved them away from making live art in theatre spaces and led them to make work for screen. This is their first exploration into film.