Brendon Pongia of morning television was the Master of Ceremonies for the meal and he got us all down to earth with a lot of patter about Dancing with the stars. I was proud to put my hand up when Brendon asked who watched Dancing with the stars. This sorted the audience out. Here was an audience of Wellington High Culture. Lowbrows like me were in the distinct minority. But Brendon was the perfect foil, dancer and sportsman, introducing Toni Huata for some powerful waiata and getting everyone ready for the show itself, Kôwhiti and the presentation of awards to follow. 

And then, with a bit of a hurry-up from MC Pongia over the dessert, we all moved from the banquet room to a theatre at Te Papa for the show.

Kôwhiti means to pull out or to select. It can be used to say something like, ‘the kumara were pulled out of the garden’. It also has the secondary meaning of the appearance of a new moon and there is an interesting usage with a replication of whiti in kôwhitiwhiti which refers to a leaping or dancing of water.

But for those who attended, Kôwhiti will always mean the performance or a set of dance performances at Te Papa Tongarewa during Te Matariki. Some of these were excerpts from earlier shows and others were new shows. There were strong similarities amongst the shows and there were differences as well. Kôwhiti then was a set of shows shifting in shape like dancing water in a fountain.

Stage management was well done without fuss or fanfare by Cathy Knowsley and her crew. Lisa Maule provided very effective lighting. It all ran like clockwork and, like the food at the hakari, it was both elegant and sustaining as background for the performances. 

Cat Ruka stood out. Dance met theatre at Kôwhiti; every dance-picture told a story and hers were the best in many respects even though she did not dance much. Bare breasted, her Playing Savage solo dance involved props from the world of the Maori woman, cigarette trapped, gang trapped, tourist trapped by toy plastic dolls, flag trapped and wrapped in a hold from which she was seriously hurt, from a warriorhood that came with the territory like a curse. 

But there was much else in the show. One or two of the dancers were older but a lot were young and they came with an open freshness, taking the lead of Tanemahuta and Merenia Gray on stage with very clear understanding. The young ones came mainly from the Judith Fuge Dance Studio and the Commercial Dance course at the Whitireia Performing Arts Centre.

The work of Taupuhi Toki and New Native Dance was seen to effect in Paa Kingdom. And the choreography of Cathy Livermore and the Atamira Dance Company in Don’t feed the man fishtook message and performance to new heights and asked new questions about things like global warming from the point of view of indigenous people. 

The New Zealand School of Dance supported Merenia Gray and the Merenia Gray Dance Company in Black Rain. As well as superb dance this show had an excellent use of music and poetry ranging from the work of Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns to that of Hone Tuwhare.

Tanemahuta Gray used the music of Tiki Taane in his Past/Present/Futureand in Tangaroa and Now this is it, keeping things current. The contemporary feel was reinforced by Future Fame appearing courtesy of Mad Fame Creative Specialists in The Inner Cosmos. This featured the music of Mr Flash and The Dorian Concept.

Merenia Gray also used poetry in Entangled, this time taking Octavio Paz’s The Sacred Fig Tree as an inspiration. Merenia cross referenced to a lot of things without losing the thread. A subtlety to be wondered at. 

Some of the work went back a fair way. He Taura Whakapapa with choreography by Charles Koroneho and Te Toki Haruru came from a production by the Taiao Dance Theatre in 1990. With a theme concerning the fragility of unity the work, like all other pieces on the night posed questions that lingered.

Some of the collaboration worked extremely well, taking all kinds of risks. The support of Kid Genius Klik for Cat Ruka’s Playing Savage made for a magic combination. Playing Savage also employed the music of Chopin and Notorious BIG. The presentation carried the musical contrasts.

The way Kôwhiti worked was that key performances from the past were selected with an eye on the message so that the experience of Maori over time was reflected. In Moonlight Sonata and Memoirs of Active Servicedating from 2006, the Year of the Veteran, looked back to the long experience of Maori, especially Maori from remote areas, in the New Zealand war machine.

Te Whenua, with choreography by Moss Paterson and the Atamira Dance Company, came from Whakairo of 2007. This gave Kôwhiti a spiritual and mystic dimension and so connected the deep past of the Maori to Te Papa Tongarewa during Te Matariki of 2010.

Some of the work went back as it projected forward. He Taonga with choreography from Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal and the Okareka Dance Company came from a Graduation ceremony for the New Zealand School of Dance season in 2009. This interesting work is being extended for a production in 2011.

And this was the way of the show. It looked forward as well as to the past with no holds barred, no prisoners taken and no boundaries to hem people in. And Kôwhiti was made for the present. It worked in the here and now, each dance show tugging at the audience with its own immediacy.

It is to be hoped that this trio, Tanemahuta and Merenia Gray and Jenny Stevenson work together again. They are good enough as individuals; Tanemahuta pushing the envelope, Merenia creatively organizing as she reaches out to art and literature and Jenny advising and teaching. Put together they appeal immensely.

And they carry weight.

Tanemahuta and Merenia bring the whanau and what a whanau it is. There are dance connections stretching out into the world and back to the Kapiti coast. Tanemahuata had recently returned from his involvement with the New Zealand Expo in China. He and Merenia had managed with Jenny to get many dancers of different types together but the show hummed rather than grated – you weren’t sure what kind of dance you would see next but that was of no bother, it was the way of the kôwhitiwhiti, the way the fountain played.

And Jenny Stevenson brought her husband Jim to Kôwhiti. Jim is mentioned in the Kôwhiti Programme, he is a quiet mentor, a restrained consigliere of the arts, especially dance in Wellington; a patron who knows how to make things happen and walk softly.

Each piece was an exploration with Tanemahuta Gray himself pulling out the stops, pulling back from working with Jackie Chan at the Shanghai Expo and down from aerial stuff for the night, mentoring, talking up things with his body. And that was the way of the night; all performers used their bodies to say something. It was the most open expression I’ve seen for a while, anywhere in the world. Merenia was there throughout, smoothing out the wrinkles and in every corner there was Jenny Stevenson, a mind of dance. 

And then it was on to the presentation of awards. These were for contributions over a lifetime to Maori contemporary dance. And here the lifetimes were shown. Gaylene Sciascia, Tama Huata, Stephen Bradshaw, figures of a lifetime in dance. The awards were presented by the dignitaries; the Mayor of Wellington and Gregory Fortuin of the Whitireia Council and ex Race Relations Conciliator. All introduced by the indefatigably fresh Brendon Pongia, himself one of a formidable range of Maori dignitaries in attendance.

In 1977 at Rongomaraeroa marae at Porangahau Gaylene Sciascia was part of a hui for Maori dancers. In Gaylene’s lifetime of contribution dance courses have been started at places like Whitireia Polytechnic, a production called Moko was choreographed by her and then taken to China with the New Zealand Ballet Company and she is presently taking a dance group on a tour of Croatia, Slovenia and Germany. 

From 1983 Tama Huata has contributed in many ways to Maori Contemporary dance and with his role as Chairman of Te Matatini, New Zealand’s largest performing arts festival, there is an important connection to kapa haka and traditional Maori dance. He is the founder and CEO of Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre. This has 24 full-time dancers in three troupes that tour internationally. He has taken Maori dance to the world especially to North America. 

The third contributor, Stephen Bradshaw, has moved and shaken the world of contemporary Maori Dance since 1984. His journey has taken him from Department of Labour employment schemes involving dance in 1984 to the formation of Taiao in 1988 to the convening of a summit on contemporary Maori Dance in 2009. This summit ushered in the planning process for Kôwhiti Matariki Festival of Mâori Contemporary Dance in 2010. 

The awards themselves came with interesting stories. Charles Koroneho had carved keys and locks and these were displayed as part of the presentations. This was yet another twist to Kôwhiti, another way of entertaining and holding the attention right up there. The design concept of Toki Poutangata; lock and key was paid for by Creative New Zealand and brought sculpture to Kôwhiti as Koroneho’s idea of keys to unlock the carvings were explored and shown on stage. This is all described in the handouts as: