The next wave of dance is coming. Nigel Benson meets Aboriginal choreographer Vicki Van Hout.
Footsteps from different worlds meet at the Puketeraki marae in Karitane tomorrow.
The marae will host a short season of contemporary indigenous dance as part of the 2010 Dunedin Fringe Festival.
Te Ngaru Hou, which means "The Next Wave", features works by leading Aboriginal contemporary dancer and choreographer Vicki Van Hout, from Sydney, and Ngai Tahu dancers Louise Potiki Bryant and Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann.
"I'm of Wiradjuri descent, in far west New South Wales," Van Hout told the ODT this week.
"As a contemporary indigenous dancer, you're showing that we're not a dead race.
"We're evolving. We're the next wave of storyteller.
"We're saying: 'This is how you do it'.
"Every community has classical folk or tradition dances which speak of the first people who survived.
"It speaks of the mythology of people who perpetuate themselves," she says.
"We've become so global that it's easy to lose our sense of identity.
"It's lovely to appreciate something that's different, that piques our curiosity and makes us wonder about our country.
"The steps come from how we tread on this land, not on another land.
"This country [Australia] is vast, with many different people, cultures, nations and clans.
"You walk on this land in a different way.
"What I love about the dances from New Zealand is the fire I see from the men.
"The women have a certain power.
"They're stabilisers.
"The hidden force of the wave."
Van Hout trained at the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association, before winning an overseas study award to train at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York.
It was after leaving Australia to study in New York that she had an epiphany.
"I think I had a fire in my belly to choreograph right from the start at the Aboriginal dance school," she says.
"Then, one day when I was in New York, the penny just dropped.
"Everyone's trying to find something and I realised that I'd walked away from something."
She returned to Australia to perform with the Bangarra Dance Theatre, the New Horizons Asian tour of the groundbreaking ballet Ochres and collaborated with the Sydney Symphony and Aboriginal/Islander Dance Theatre in The Edge Of The Sacred.
Her first full-length work, Wiradjourni, was inspired by Aboriginal kinship laws.
"I'd been doing research into how we perceive culture and compare one culture to another.
How do you judge another culture or way of thinking?"
You could spend a lifetime discovering the intricacies of culture.
A lifetime sharing with other people.
"I see myself as a conduit.
"It's really important to keep the essence of culture alive.
"It's an expression that is intrinsic to this country."
The work would have broad appeal, Van Hout says.
"I always try to make it audience-friendly, especially with dance.
"Contemporary dance is already abstract and a bit exclusive.
"I want the fishermen or the elders to get into it."
Auckland-based Ngai Tahu dancer Bryant will also perform Nohopuku - Dreams of space shifting at the festival.
The work combines dance, video projection and spoken word with original music by Bryant's partner, Paddy Free, of Pitch Black.
Nohopuku - Dreams of space shifting explores Bryant's reflections on identity and image in fragmented mirror-glass windows.
Bryant was the 2003 Ngai Tahu artist in residence at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.
The works feature dancers Raghav Handa, Anja Packham and Ruckstuhl-Mann.
"Te Ngaru Hou will be a unique experience that shouldn't be missed," runanga manager Suzanne Ellison says.
"It's not often that people in the north coast communities get to see world-class contemporary dance so close to home.
"We hope that as many local people as possible can join us.
"This will be a fun way to come to our beautiful marae."
Te Ngaru Hou producer Jesse Gubb, of Kati Huirapa ki Puketeraki, said the marae was becoming an centre of artistic and cultural expression.
"We want to promote the value of arts, and act as an arts ambassador," he told the ODT.
"Our next plan is to set up an indigenous festival of the arts."
• See it
Te Ngaru Hou will be performed at Puketeraki marae, Apes Rd, Karitane at 7pm tomorrow and Saturday and at 2pm on Sunday.
The audience for each show will be welcomed on to the marae with a powhiri.
Tickets for Te Ngaru Hou are available from the runanga office at Grimness St, Karitane, or from Artist Development Agency at 110 Moray Pl.
Tickets: $8 or $20 for family groups.
