Online exclusive
Why I Made is a fortnightly feature, with artists and writers sharing the behind-the-scenes stories of their creations with listener.co.nz
Powdery white sand Pacific beaches fringed with palm trees and colourful flowers, running up to rainforest and traditional villages; the gilded balconies, lush red velvet seats and grand staircases of European concert halls, where men arrive in tailcoats and women in stylish gowns.
These settings – idealised, imagined and from a long ago past – might seem incongruous but they were destined to meet and lead to a diaspora of people and ideas. They’re getting together again in Auckland later this month when Pacific dance meets contemporary classical music for Tolu.
Meaning three, Tolu weaves Western music – courtesy of the ensemble New Zealand Trio – with the songs and dances of the Pacific. For nearly three years, dancer and choreographer Iosefa Enari
and Pacific music director Aiono Manu Faaea-Semeatu have worked with NZ Trio’s musicians to craft a soundscape that represents various Pacific cultures in Aotearoa.
Cellist Ashley Brown and violinist Amalia Hall are joined by pianist Liam Wooding for the performance, which Brown says will “blow away” preconceptions of the marriage between dance and music.
They’ll play alongside three Pacific guest musicians - Niulala Helu, Helen Pahulu and Alan Motufoua – and dancers Tupe Lualua, Faivaeselopepe Anric Sitanilei and Josie Bonnington-Mailisi.
Iosefa Enari and Ashley Brown, why have you made Tolu?
IE: We did a show about three or four years ago as part of the annual Pacific Dance Festival, where we used jazz music. After the show, I was approached by Jack Bourke, who’s an NZ Trio board member, and he asked, ‘would you ever make anything with classical music?’ I told him that I like classical music but had never really thought of going down that road. He introduced me to NZ Trio’s manager, Jessica Duirs, and we started talking. I always like the idea of putting Pacific dance with music outside of traditional Pacific music.
AB: We do a lot of concerts where it’s just the three of us on stage and there’s a set kind of audience for it; chamber music lovers come along, they know what to expect and they come along understanding what’s going to happen, but we’re always looking for ways to blow those preconceptions out of the water.
Music and dance is, of course, an obvious marriage but I think the relationship with European traditions and island cultures is one that’s been a bit unexplored. I think both of us – NZ Trio and Pacific Dance NZ – thought, ‘this could be exciting.’
So, how did you make Tolu?
IE: We started off meeting on Zoom. It took about six months between our first Zoom and actually getting together in a room for the first rehearsal because we all had so many other commitments.
AB: We didn’t want to rush the project and do it within five or six months. We wanted to take our time, work together, go away and reflect on that work, then come back together and pick up where we left off to keep progressing things.
We started by all sitting down together, talking about our backgrounds, to get to know each other. We played a little bit, sang and danced together. By the second day, we were learning songs.
IE: I think one of the exciting things, and it came quite early on in the rehearsal process, was that we would sort of do improvisations where we’d partner up a dancer or a singer with one of the musicians to see what would – could – be created. There’s two particular pieces that haven’t changed much since our very first meeting. One involves a meeting of the cello with Tongan chanting.
AB: We didn’t touch that because it was one of those moments where we couldn’t make it any better even if we did try to drill down further. It’s exactly as it should be – spontaneous and lively.
IE: The second piece uses a guitar plucking technique called igi, which they do in Samoa and, I think, in Tonga. This one section works really well with the violin. There was just a natural connection that we couldn’t write or script because it just happened because we had an opportunity to let it sit.
Poulima Salima, Ryan Youens and John-Paul Muir provided arrangements of Pacific music.
Did any themes start to emerge?
IE: Yes, themes of navigation and also how we communicate. We didn’t have anything specific in mind when we started; they developed organically. We didn’t want it to be a show where just one people were represented and when we started putting things in an order, we could see it was the Polynesian triangle with Aotearoa as an end point. So, it really takes in the Moana Nui A Kiwa highway.
The other theme is how issues like climate change are affecting our oceans, islands and cultures; how different things happening in different parts of the world go all around it. It thinks about the influence on Pacific people and cultures.
AB: There’s a work in it by John Psathas who has Greek heritage, but I think of that as linked to how Europeans travelled across the seas. The idea of the sea and travelling across it, I like to think of it as you could be in the 1700s with a musician sitting next to an anthropologist or the surgeon on a ship and they just happen to play the fiddle. There’s a dark ocean, stars above and then you hear this tune across the seas.
Ashley, this is being performed at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre at Auckland’s Aotea Centre. That’s a good deal bigger than the venues NZ Trio usually plays.
AB: NZ Trio can play in venues as diverse as a concert chamber to someone’s living room. Being up close to the music making can be really interesting, but this is on a different scale. We will be amplified to ensure the full force of the music gets out to all the people, and so they can feel the rhythms deeply through their whole body. There’s also scenography by FAFSWAG and production designers Filament 11.
I should also say one the names of the NZ Trio musicians might be unfamiliar. Normally, the trio is me, Amalia Hall, and Somi Kim but Somi has recently had a pēpē [baby] so Liam Wooding is on piano.
Tolu premieres at the Pacific Dance Festival, Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre at 7.30pm, Thursday, June 27, 2024, after a special secondary schools’ matinee.
