This year’s Pacific Dance at Tempo features women choreographers. The brief, to develop their dance traditions as reflections of contemporary society, produces a coherent yet varied programme, some quality performances and intelligent choreography.

The Call, Nikki Upoko’s solo, takes us on a journey of self-discovery via her Cook Island heritage mixed with street dance and poetry (Michelle Durey). Opening with the language of sensuous hips punctuating the rhythm and meaning of Durey’s articulate poetry, there is an emphatic question being asked – ‘Who am I?’ Clever positioning places Durey to face both the audience and Upoko, framing the poet’s head and the back of Upoko’s body. It is as if they are the same person. Durey exits, leaving only the sound of the titi (grass and feather skirt) the soft, precise footwork and successively flowing hands. Piano music (Justin Timberlake) starts up and Upoko performs a slow motion ura (Cook Island hula). The sustainment emphasises the skill and beauty of this dance language. Removal of the large brightly coloured titi and the headdress (pare) leaves a black costumed serious and intense contemporary maiden. This process is like watching the metamorphosis of a colourful butterfly in reverse. A rainstorm starts up and the pare becomes the ocean as if the tide is ebbing and with it one part of Upoko’s identity. Hands, in kaparima tradition, tell the story. Entering a different world the drums signal a shift to a defiant street dance, a Beyonce swagger mixed with male Cook Island ura. Closing the dance, poet and dancer reunite, re-connecting more tangled roots. Upoko’s incisive choreography maintains the integrity of her Polynesian dance legacy.

Similarly insightful choreography hallmarks Aruna Po-Ching’s compassionate solo Bended. We are on an emotional rollercoaster that is the life of her bipolar friend, via Hawaiian hula that is truly contemporary and yet ancient at the same time (and great lighting). As the recognisably hula knees flare and pulse, the heartbeat is raised and Po-Ching has her audience just where she wants them. The skills of the incessant and rhythmically precise stepping, spatial exactness of arms and hands piercing her personal space, deft shifts in dynamic range and facial expressions emphatically express unpredictable mood swings. Ending with a dance that develops the Hawaiian language of the hands, set to Robbie Williams Feel, Po-Ching also embraces a larger narrative about cultural collisions.

Filoi Vaila’au takes us to Samoa and her dream world in Moe Taitei. Dancing with Albert Tupuola to live guitar (Lance Su’a), song (Valerie Fasavalu) and fala (Albert Falefatu), we are given the whole Pacific cultural package with a twist. The Samoan siva is the backbone and how beautifully it is danced. Woven into a fragrant garland of flowers, sasa slaps make percussive explosions but in a contrasting range steps move softly across the floor whilst hands rotate and uncurl gracefully. In Vaila’au’s romantic dream, there are exchanges of glances and gentle touches comprising a subtle balance of shifts between solos and duets, echoing traditional form. Western salsa and a walk up the aisle offer deft touches to this warm and yet not-too-sweet story.

Takes a Village features dancing from choreographer, New Zealand born Fijian, Mereula Naulutubutubu-Buliruarua with Elaine Chen, Benjamin Mitchell and Emily Woodall. This rite of passage, contemporary dance reflects her roots. Starting from a bound struggle to birth whilst lying down, gradually dancers stand and settle into repetitive phrases of intensive arm gestures and driven shifting steps. Formations of trios with solos follow as this dance attempts to explore how it takes a village to raise a child. The connection is tenuous, the performance uncertain. Perhaps there’s more to come.

This programme delights as the choreographers preserve the skills, values, aesthetics and integrity of their dance heritages, freshening their traditional dances for the here and now.

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