Takarangi - the Third Auckland Dance Project
Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau, Auckland
30/09/2013 - 30/09/2013
Production Details
MOSS PATTERSON WRITES
The takarangi double spiral in Māori visual art depicts the meeting of two koru patterns that lead off in opposite directions.
It evokes ideas about cycles of life and the completion of a cycle before another begins, pivotal meeting points, beginning new journeys, letting things go and venturing bravely forward without forgetting the past. These are some of the inspirations I’ve taken from the takarangi design for this year’s Auckland Dance Project.
We can work together to find a new path or we can find it ourselves. Sometimes we carry the past on our shoulders and it’s holding us back; sometimes it’s a blessing and a guide to where we are going. The dancers reach out, they fall, they pull themselves away and they explore what is possible in the time they are given.
Takarangi is danced to a series of percussive tracks that ebb and flow with their intensity and timing. Sometimes it is subtle and sometimes very abrupt. This has kept us challenging the way we can find balance within the different movement structures and narratives throughout the dance.
Takarangi is the outcome of many different choreographic tasks and exercises. The groups had a particular vocabulary created for them and they each explored how that could best represent who they are. Each rehearsal was exciting and each group opened itself up to what was possible with the provocations I posed. Understanding and reinforcing the strengths of each group was a joy and pushing ideas further towards completion was not always an easy task. With the great help of Gaby Thomas this year the groups achieved a wonderful studio work ethic and maintained that golden focus on creating not just ‘new stuff’ but upholding each person’s individual mana along the way. Kia ora.
Moss Patterson, 2013
THE DANCERS
Unitec: Year 3 : Jared Hemopo, Fleur Lovejoy , Marisol Pengelly, Ben Temoko; Year 2: Aloalii Tapu, Year 1: Reece Adams , Lydia Connolly Hiatt, Yiling Chen, Caitlin Davey, Jasmine Donald, Regie Malonzo , Cushla Roughan
Tangaroa College:
Verity Alafaapae, Tokerau Browne, Asofitu Fesuiaí, Vanessa Haare, Adeleine Laupola, Maxcine Matagi, Dominic Matuauto, Terry Morrison, Shavon Robson, Lydia Sipaia, Matthias Tamarama, Claudine Tokahere, Mamie Tokahere, Mariana Tanuvasa, Clarisse Utumapu, Bronx Wijohn
Waitakere College
Faasu Afoa-Purcell, Claudia Allen, Kent Aporillo, Hosanna Ball, Sabina Becic, Celeste Bethune, Rochelle Carnow, Eilish Chibnall, Charlie Corrigan, Mitzi Diaz, Anna Falefatu, Kristen Gardiner, Kajal Gounder, Komal Gounder, Alexandria Henderson, Chloe Henderson, Mary Malinao, Connor Moore, Drew Prescott, Anton Pulefale, Kulshan Rai, Ashley Ramos, Claudia Rohani, Gwen Shaw, Simran Singh, Peter Taua
Balmoral School
Olivia Abbott, Mia Adams, Sharni Collinson Khaine, Niamh Cullen, Sophia de Pledge, Nellie Dumm-Owen, Olive Drumm-Owen, Mia Edmonds, Sabine Edmonds, Kate Egglseton, Richard Fa’aumu, Alice Filer, Isabella Fong, Tessa Gribben, Finn Helm, Leah Hollingworth, Luca Hommels, Ruby Mackenzie, Georgie Reay, Hunter Roberts, Grace Robertson, Rosie Robson,
Isabella Smith, Kendra Smith, Ella Speight, Sadie Tahir, Talia Thomas, Setai Setoga, Setoga Setoga, Tama Timu, Blaire Wishart, Eva Yarrow
THE MUSICIANS
Percussion: Eric Renick, Jennifer RavenShane Currey, Sam Rich
Violin: Rachel Moody
Cello: David Garner
Bass: Gordon Hill
Flute: Sami Junnonen
Clarinet: James Fry
Keyboards: David Guerin
90 mins
Embodying a double spiral
Review by Dr Linda Ashley 01st Oct 2013
Takarangi opens with an overture that challenges some of the audience in its rather mathematical and convoluted ebbs and flows. It sets the tone for the show in that this 85 strong dance ensemble meet the challenge of holding their body rhythms accurately against and with several rhythmically intricate scores. Sparklingly led by the music director for the project and Principal Percussionist Eric Renick, the music is contrapuntal, it is gamelan, it is played on tea cups, plant pots and other unexpected objects, it is a musical wonderland; and it is beautifully played by Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. It enhances and is enhanced by the flowing, ever-shifting choreography of artistic director Moss Patterson.
Large numbers of dancers swirl around the stage in kaleidoscopic pathways fleshing out a Takarangi, the distinctive Maori double spiral image, in which two koru patterns lead off in opposite directions. Representing the cycles of life beginning, ending and restarting, there is a meeting point of past with the present; as one idea ends another is born. Takarangi, the third in the APO’s Auckland Dance Projects, clearly carries the legacy of British longstanding community dance impresario Royston Maldoom who brought the concept here for 2011’s APO’s Sacre.
The whole cast work closely together with sensitivity that could be attributed to a flock of birds as they tear through the sky in immaculate swarms. Dancers stop and start capturing energised pauses, abruptly at times adding edgy phrasing amongst the sweeping travelling. Arms slice through the air. Seamless transitions between the numerous small groups, solos, duets, epic whole group unisons and canons, contact work and complex lifts suggest moments when an ever present past is supporting new journeys or holding back explorations.
Dance students from Unitec and choreographer Gaby Thomas have been helping Patterson rehearse the school children. The dancers range in age and dance experience but they all look comfortable and their performance quality is a tribute to the educational and creative process of Patterson and his team. The technical level of the dancing of the Unitec dancers sets them apart, but some of the younger ones are not far behind. Tangaroa College is participating for the third time, while dancers from Balmoral Primary School and Waitakere College are having their first participation in this project. Some of the students dance are with a maturity way beyond their years, demonstrating how much they have learnt about dance, and those life enhancing-skills such as discipline, creative thinking, working with others, physical co-ordination, listening, self-control and memory. Unitec dancer, Alolii Tapu, danced in the first APO dance project, Sacre, in 2011 when he was a student at Tangaroa College, and that led to his choice of dance as a career.
Costumes (Marama Lloydd) and lighting (Vanda Karolczak) amplify the show’s aesthetic.
As the one hour show ends I hope that there is another in the planning for next year, as the live music, rich choreography and fresh dancing truly do embody a takarangi.
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