Review of Investigação em Artes book series

Investigação em Artesis a book-series reflecting modes of practice-led research from international perspectives, which has published seven volumes to date. Initiated by Portugese artist-researcher José Quaresma the books contribute rich collections of essays to the growing field of artistic research. With essays in multiple languages, these books make visible the multilingual world we live in, creating space for the travel of artistic ideas through Portuguese, French, Spanish and English and providing significant resources for artist-researchers. These books present stimulating examples of artistic methodologies, critical challenges to the dominant curricula of art academies, and provocations to the question of defining knowledge and knowledge production with perspectives from London, Brazil, Lisbon, Chicago, Helsinki, Brisbane, Auckland, Berlin and Sweden. In repeated rejections of straight and uniform logics, the sensibility of these books regards practice-led research occupying a space for advancing artistic thinking itself, in all of its manifestations and possible interpretations

Sustaining Māori indigenous performative knowledge: Engaging practices that foster ihi within a contemporary dance theatre context

In this article I explore the creative potential of Māori indigenous performative knowledge such as ihi. My research investigated personal experiences as a performer and choreographer during the creative process, exploring and engaging with practices that foster ihi within contemporary performance. I draw on practice-led research methods in the choreographic and performance process of creating a duet called Ngā Whaiaipo o te Roto - Lovers of the Lake, performed in the Auckland Tempo Dance Festival (Williams, 2012). By exploring Māori concepts of performance within contemporary dance practices, I explored the potential to sustain indigenous knowledge, meanings and connections in how Māori cultural concepts are transferred into a theatre context

Looking back: Being kaitiaki: A response to contemporary dance - A Māori perspective

In this article I respond to Stephen Bradshaw's reprinted article in which he investigated significant issues in the development of Māori contemporary dance in the forty years prior to 2002 when the article was published. Bradshaw offered a personal perspective as practitioner and narrated some of the meetings between those involved in Māori and contemporary dance, specific wānanga in which Māori artists investigated culturally appropriate ways of using theatre dance arts, and discussing examples of cultural exchange. Bradshaw engaged with key issues and definitions relating to inter-cultural and intra-cultural exchange and offered an understanding of continuum Māori dance that was timely and insightful. My purpose in the article is to respond to Bradshaw's work as a current contemporary dance practitioner myself and to engage with how I interpret 'being kaitiaki'. I offer examples of my experiences in defining myself as a Māori contemporary dancer, in my activism and in my use of social media as a site for activism

Dancing in different tongues: A surplus of meaning in illuminating indigenous terrains of contemporary dance

In this article, contesting the belief that dance is a universal, nonverbal language, I consider the different dance languages used by indigenous contemporary dancers to express their worldviews. I also explore, how as dance languages intertwine with or run parallel to verbal languages, performances result in 'dancing in different tongues'. Setting out to illuminate 21st century indigenous terrains of intercultural contemporary dance, I follow a trail of thoughts that emerged during my role as co-convenor for the 2013 Atarau Symposium: Illuminating Indigenous Terrains of Intercultural Dance. Along this trajectory I find contemporary relevance in the semiotics of C. S. Peirce as a means of interpreting two indigenous contemporary dances made in New Zealand. In exploring how these dances function expressively I aim to clarify ways in which indigenous contemporary dance can create a surplus of meaning and how a semiotic translation can illuminate the various cultural terrains in the dancing

When a ngarara bit the taniwha's tail: Education, the arts and the third space

In the mid-seventies Arnold Manaaki Wilson began a programme that ran for over two decades and challenged our education system. He described his programme, Te Mauri Pakeaka, as a ngarara, a pesky insect that bit the tail of the sleeping taniwha (monster) that represents Māori knowledge, values and arts within the education processes of Aotearoa. He used the arts as a catalyst for schools and communities to revaluate the role of all things Māori within the education system, and he held his workshops on marae (extended family and tribal home base) throughout the country. Thousands participated: students, teachers, principals, departmental administrators, kaumatua (male elders), parents and artists. However, in the devolution of educational responsibilities that took place under the name of Tomorrow's Schools (Minister of Education, 1988) Arnold was retired and the programme stopped. The legacy lives in the altered awareness of participants, in the arts works in whare kai (dining rooms) around the country, and in ways of exploring dance and drama, but, while Arnold's reputation as an artist is widely acknowledged, his role as an educator and as an agent of educational change is not. Perhaps it was too challenging

Looking back: Contemporary dance: A Māori perspective (part one and two)

This article by Stephen Bradshaw begins with a reprint of his article originally commissioned by Creative New Zealand in July 2001 and subsequently published in Moving to the future. Ngā whakanekeneke atu ki te Ao o Apōpō, a strategy document for professional contemporary dance 2001-2003. In this article, Bradshaw investigated significant issues in the development of Māori contemporary dance over thirty years. Bradshaw offered a personal perspective as practitioner and narrated some of the meetings between Māori and contemporary dance, specific wānanga in which Māori artists investigated culturally appropriate ways of using theatre dance arts, and discussing examples of cultural exchange. Bradshaw engaged with key issues and definitions relating to inter-cultural and intra-cultural exchange and offered an understanding of continuum Māori dance that was timely and insightful. The second part of this article contains Bradshaw's response to this article (2002), with a focus on strategies in the support and establishment of Māori contemporary dance in recent years. Complimentary to Bradshaw's work is the subsequent article in this issue of Dance Research Aotearoa by Jack Gray in which he responds to Bradshaw's comments as a current contemporary dance practitioner

Dance and Place: Body Weather, globalisation and Aotearoa

This article will explore the relationship between dance and place. Using the work of Body Weather (BW) practitioners such as Snow (2006), Grant & de Quincey (2006), and Taylor (2010), this article will explore their unique viewpoints and somatic approaches to engaging with place. Also the works of other scholars and movement practitioners will be used to investigate how place shapes dance practices (Alexeyeff, 2009; Brown, 1997; Gray, 2010; Mazer, 2007; Savigliano, 2009). BW threads within the Aotearoa/New Zealand contemporary dance scene will be traced, culminating in suggestions about the implications for practicing BW in an Aotearoa context. How understandings of movement can emerge from different environments is the focus of the research

Dancing Aotearoa: Connections with Land, Identity and Ecology

“Dancing Aotearoa” emanates from my conviction that, even in today’s highly globalised and mobile world, it is not only possible but also important to recognise a contemporary dancer and choreographic practice that is distinctly from Aotearoa New Zealand. Its importance resides in the fact that, 174 years after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi), between the British colonisers and the MÄori, Aotearoa New Zealand is still grappling with its social and cultural identity. Dance, along with the other arts, is one way of working out what it means to be a New Zealander in these times.Arguably more than the other arts, however, the dance artist experiences the world sensuously, emotionally and physically. S/he is attuned through a dancer’s embodiment to be able to respond to the shapes, forms and energies of place by matching, morphing, shaping and re-shaping the space. His/her rhythms derive from an internal pulse and from the visual and felt rhythms of the landscape. This landscape might be constructed, angular and urban or elemental. It might be psychological, intuitive or imposed. It is my view that a dance artist has the potential, along with the other arts, to speak for ‘this’ time and place—ecologically, socially, culturally or politically—and in so doing help define our national identity. In the following article I offer a commentary on connections with land, identity and ecology that can be seen in the work of some dancer/choreographers of Aotearoa. My commentary reflects my own depth of experience as a dancer/choreographer and educator, as well as some preliminary research with a small group of other dancer/choreographers whose artistry I have witnessed and who chose to engage with this issue.Â

Searching for Bliss: Insights and challenges in yoga and contemporary dance choreography

In this article I discuss a research project exploring how yoga-based movement motifs might be developed within choreography for performance, while retaining a focus on wellbeing for all involved. In attending to our wellbeing, I consider creative processes, preparation, rehearsals, sequencing of the movements in the choreography and the choice of specific yoga movements. Within the process of creating two dance works, a number of insights and challenges arose relating to our diverse and shared understandings of wellbeing, and also our integrity in performance. Drawing on research findings in the form of dancers’ reflections, images from the performances, my choreographer’s journal notes and our embodied methodology, I combine different representational methods to share some of these insights and challenges