Powhiri – Interwoven Night
whetu | whiri | tikiwananga | star | weave | seek knowledge
Charles Koroneho (NZ)
Project Description
This performance explores the Powhiri ceremony as an interwoven night, a portal of welcome – Po (night, darkness, underworld) – whiri (weave, plait). Space and movement are engaged to form an abstract night revealing a threshold between Te Ao Kikokiko (the physical world) and Te Ao Wairua (the spiritual world).
whetu | whiri | tikiwananga – draw together the nights of Maori cosmology – Te Po-nui (the great night) Te Po-roa (the long night) Te Po-uriuri (the deep night) Te Po-kerekere (the intense night) Te Po-tahuri mai (the night turning towards) Te Po-tahuri atu (the night turning away). Calling the living and the dead, in ceremony the ancestors visit us from the great night of Hine nui te Po – the guardian of departed souls.
Website
Artist Bio
Charles Koroneho (NZ): Charles Koroneho works in the fields of performance and culture. He created Te Toki Haruru (est 1997) to explore cultural collaboration and the intersection between dance, theatre and design. His projects are presented as performances, research workshops and arts collaborations exploring the collision between Maori cosmology, New Zealand society and global cultures.
Koroneho is a founding member of Te Kanikani o Te Rangatahi, a graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance and Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. He has performed extensively in New Zealand and abroad with Te Toki Haruru, Lemi Ponifasio MAU, the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company and worked in collaboration with Min Tanaka, Guillermo Gomez-Pena and La Pocha Nostra.
Koroneho shares his vision of dance and performance by providing movement, improvisation classes and creative workshops for dancers, actors and performance artists. He supports the arts community as a choreographer, collaborative director, cultural consultant and mentor.
Charles Koroneho was appointed HOD Contemporary Dance Program in 2020, Adjunct Professor 2017-18, Faculty of Creative Industries, Unitec Institute of Technology. Koroneho was awarded The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Arts Laureate for Dance, 2014.