TOA III
Performance work by Bella Waru
Performance work by Bella Waru
Saturday, February 22
8:00 pm ↛ Scotiabank Dance Centre
Tickets
From three Mori artists and practitioners of Mau Rākau (Māori Martial Arts), comes TOA III. Drawing from embodied knowledges, we fight; to carry legacy, dance with fear, travel beyond pain, and carve out an ancient-future from our physical vessels, with the blueprints of our ancestors.
Devised and performed by Bella Waru, Fallon Te Paa & Kaycee Merito, TOA III is a cross-disciplinary work, merging the embodied ancestral knowledge of Mau Rākau with contemporary dance. As practitioners of 4, 11 & 9 years respectively, each artist has grappled with discipline, responsibility, consequence, integrity & purpose, and are well-versed in taking a hit, adapting to change, remaining calm under pressure, functioning as a unit & persevering under all conditions.
Throughout any journeying of rough terrain, there lies the need for love, care, flow & nurture in dynamic balance. In these unprecedented times, it feels more necessary than ever to fight for a safer, more liveable future; to protect what is sacred.
TOA III presents a holistic, authentic & proudly Indigenous image of the modern day "warrior".
Mau Rākau as a form is constantly evolving; adapting techniques & approaches with the times. The form was threatened by New Zealand’s colonisation, outlawed for 60 years under the Tohunga Supression Act of 1907. Its revitalisation was encouraged 40yrs ago through the establishment of Te Whare Tū Taua o Aotearoa by Dr Pita Sharples in 1983, with the intention to revive Māori language, cultural, spiritual & ceremonial practices & wisdom. Today, there are 49 masters of the craft in the world, only 3 of them women.
TOA III documents living culture as it unfolds, seen through our own eyes & experienced in our own bodies.
It is of great significance for us to share our stories today.
- director/choreographer Bella Waru
- collaborators Fallon Te Paa, Kaycee Merito & Bella Waru
- sound Sione Teumohenga
- lighting design Elekis Poblete Teirney
- costume REMUSE
- videographer/photographer Sol Fernandez
- editors Sol Fernandez & Maru Nitor-Zammataro
- Mau Rākau Te Whare Tū Taua o Te Ara Hononga
- cultural consultant Fallon Te Paa
- choreographer's asssistant Karlia Cook
- production assistant Gemma Wyke
- TOA III is supported by Artshouse CultureLab Commissions (VIC, AUS) and assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
Bella Waru is a takatāpui (queer) choreographer, dancer, musician, creative director & eternal student of the Māori healing, weaving & martial arts. Of Ngāti Tukorehe, Taranaki Tūturu & Celtic descent, born on Gadigal, raised on Yuin & now residing on Wurundjeri lands (AUS), they are a foreign Sovereign, navigating life, lore & culture from, toward & between Indigenous lands & peoples.
Their movement strategies span contemporary & cultural dance forms, as well as Mau Rākau, traditional Māori Martial Arts (trained under Te Ara Hononga - where they are a 3rd rank practitioner & teacher.) Choreographically, Waru seeks to draw connections, highlight relationality & kinship; articulating new-ancient possibilities through sensation & feeling to communicate what can sometimes only be experienced, not explained.
Waru creates stories and spaces founded in embodied practice, emerging from and returning to the communities, contexts, lands and peoples who have made them who they are, with reverence and acknowledgement of those that came before them, and those that will follow after. Recurring themes include living culture, land, legacy & healing. They honour Indigenous knowledges & worldviews as means for communal wellbeing & futurity.
Significant artistic elders include Victoria Hunt, Charles Koroneho, Latai Taumoepeau & SJ Norman. Their community are their greatest teachers, inspirations & reflections, informing all that they make and do.
Works of note include HANA (collaboration w/ Julie Ann Minaai, Melbourne Museum, 2023), FAMILI; Oceanic music collaboration (Directed by Ripley Kavara, Midsumma Festival, 2019), Where We Stand (DanceOn 2018, Dancehouse 2019) and Sovereign portrait series, Kaitiaki: Sovereign Reflections (Future Lens 2020, Bodies of Woven Code 2022).
They have shown video work for In*ter*is*land 20:20 Festival (UK), Tempo Dance Festival (NZ), Bmotion Festival (Italy), undergone residencies with Banff Arts Centre (Canada), Bmotion Festival (Italy), Lucy Guerin Inc and Immigration Museum, and have worked with the likes of Victoria Hunt (Tangi Wai: The cry of water, Dance Massive, 2017), Amrita Hepi (Po Atarau, Pieces for Small Spaces & Sugar Mountain festival 2017-18), Sampa the Great (Melbourne Music Awards, 2019) & Mwanje (Golden Plains Festival 2020, Sydney Opera House 2022).
They feature in the award-winning US documentary, Knots: a forced marriage story (Manchester Film Fest- best doco, Omaha, Liverpool, Julien Dubuque, Geelong, Oxford International and British Documentary Film Festivals, 2020) as movement director & performer.