Finding new ways of working together

Dåkot-ta Alcantara-Camacho (crouched) /Bianca Hyslop (standing) at Piha.

INDIGENOUS choreography in which touring company I Moving Lab explores themes of “connective membranes” in a series of vignettes created in Chicago, New York, Guahan (Guam), Hawai’i and Sydney will be showcased in Gisborne tomorrow (Friday).

“‘I’ stands for indigenous, inter-cultural, interdisciplinary and international,” says I Moving Lab co-founder Jack Gray.

“We are re-strategising ways to work together, to work in the land and to work with other indigenous creatives who might be starved for opportunities to see or try new things,” says Gray.

Gray, dance performance artists and “cultural activators”, Bianca Hyslop and Dakot-ta Alcantara-Camacho will take the I Moving Lab audience on a two-hour experience tomorrow evening at Te Wananga o Aotearoa.

Hyslop (Ngati Whakaue) based her dance on “layering new/foreign old/felt landscapes on bodies, exploring the ‘simple’ idea of intersections of bodies and the environments we inhabit.”

Indigenous Matao artist Alcantara-Camacho will share the trio’s collaborative project that interweaves dance, video and indigenous hip hop music to express “spiritual oneness with the natural world”.

Of mixed Te Rarawa, Ngapuhi, Ngati Kahungunu and Ngati Porou lineage, Gray says a personal highlight will be connecting with his father’s people in Tokomaru Bay.

Over the past year, Gray researched tribal links to his marae at the Field Museum in Chicago. While in residence at Illinois State University, Gray and Alcantara-Camacho made a short work-in-progress, Ruatepupuke, that has been shown in Chicago, New York, Pennsylvania and Hawai’i.

The I Moving Lab performance event is outdoors and includes participatory elements to encourage the audience through guided walks, call and response singing, ceremonial activations and forum discussion.

Gray directed last year’s Indigenous Dance Forum in New York City before subsequent visits to Hawaii, Australia and more locally to Whaingaroa (Raglan) and Piha.

Audiences are small communities who might usually miss out on exposure to high level dance companies, he says.

An Indigenous Market will also be showcased at the event, with handpicked local and international artisan goods that align with I Moving Lab’s philosophies.

After Gisborne, I Moving Lab travels to Mahia Beach to perform for Scanz 2017, a gathering curated by Gisborne artist Jo Tito “on the theme of ocean energy”.

For the Mahia performance on March 8, meet at 149 Newcastle Street at 5.45pm.

For more information/updates and to follow the blog:

www.facebook.com/imovinglab

www.imovinglab.com

I Moving Lab will assemble at Te Wananga o Aotearoa at 5.45pm to guide audiences on the two-hour experience from 6pm tomorrow (Friday). Entry is by koha (suggested donation $10).