Mataqali Drift is the work of Fiji’s Vou, a music and contemporary dance company, in this production intent on “watering our roots”. In April this year the troupe of mainly urban Fijian youth went on a voyage of discovery to the remotest corners of their island land to “rediscover, re-connect and re-present” their largely forgotten cultural heritage.

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VOU Dance Company are concerned that they have lost touch with their Fijian traditions. As young people distanced from their Fijian heritages in their urban lives, their dance lives are sustained currently by Western contemporary and street dance. Opening with a film documenting their research journey to villages on islands Vanua Levu, Rabi and Koro remote from the own homes in Suva city, VOU tell us that they set about, “to reverse the flow of urban drift”, and re-discover with their roots. Mataquali Drift dances out their longings to re-connect. Fused into the choreography and truly felt in performance, their personal stories represent efforts to connect with traditional Fijian dances before they are lost.

The performance by Jone Soro, as guardian of traditional knowledge is simply breathtaking, reflecting his personal mission to encourage young Fijians to hold on to their dances and language because the culture is their identity. His song, oratory and movement in slow meke and walking is dignified, and his performance quality holds the stage – this is really a performance of heart and soul. Likewise, the dancers’ performances inspire. Edward Soro, Jiuta Tigarea, Eremasi Rova, Rusiate Rokilibau, Mereula Naibulirurua, Regina Janus, Navitalai Fong, Eleni Tabua and Mereia Tuiloma dance their hearts out. With articulate, dexterous, oceanlike fluidity they lay out a gamut of emotions including loss, longing, struggle, conflict and aspiration.

The choreography, collaboratively compiled by the dancers, re-presents the Fijian traditions that they discovered. The dance vocabulary and choreography fuses Fijian meke with Western contemporary dance and nuances of street dance. The meke fascinate with rhythmical dexterity and rich gestural language, although perhaps from a more restricted movement palette than the Western vocabulary they succeed in fully holding the audience’s attention. Wide ranging contemporary dance movement includes the familiar, as in some contact work, with more personal and inventive phrases. Jumps seem to spring from nowhere and hang in the air. A work of many, many sections it stutters at times in linking one to the next, and tests the dancers’ stamina to the maximum. Solos, duets and group dances emerge and fragment throughout, broken by entrances and exits. Breaking through the confines of the proscenium, the whole auditorium is used, as is a wide variety of lighting including torches and LED lit gloves. Costumes (Epeli Tuibeqa) are simple and complement the dance.

Elena Baravilala composed haunting chants. Unfortunately none of the many music tracks used in this production are credited.

Leaving the last ‘word’ to the dancing of Manueli, the last holder of the Bua meke from the village of Longanam seems highly appropriate albeit it that he is on film. By the same token, VOU’s narrative journey of self-discovery seems to reach out beyond Longana and Fiji to us here in Aotearoa where similar longings can be felt. The touching appearance of baby Rasa Soro is a reminder of VOU’s investment in sustaining their heritage, and I would like to think that their visits to remote villages promise more to come in terms of feeding the Fijian roots. Traditions and people have drifted across the Pacific Ocean for thousands of years and long may such exchanges continue.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer