Kaha:wi Dance Theatre

Louise teaching a workshop in her native New Zealand (that's her on the right)

Louise Potiki-Byrant is a Maori Independent Dancer/Choreographer/Video Artist and Member of Atamira Dance Collective who has been with us here in Toronto for the past six weeks as a Choreographic Intern.  She is super nice and I’ve been bugging her to do something with the blog…so I emailed her a couple of questions and she was kind enough to respond to them.  Here’s my long awaited feature on her.   By the way, I’m going to feature all of our Summer program instructors on the blog in the coming months so stay tuned.

Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn’t learn from your artist bio…

When I was 5 years old , I accidentally did a cartwheel through a glass door.

So…what does someone set out hoping to DO on a choreographic internship?

I wanted to undertake this internship because I wanted to learn through observing [Santee's] choreographic process…I was also very open to wherever that might take me… Santee has included me in her process as she develops the concept and script for her new work ‘Transmigration’ based on the iconic shaman artist Norval Morrisseau. I’ve also been involved in her choreographic process for ‘Transmigration’ as a dancer, I learnt how to make hoops and the basics of hoop dance in the workshops with Rosa and Beanie, and Brian General at Six Nations. I observed Santee’s process with Ceinwyn [Gobert] and Michael [Caldwell] as they devised duet material, and with Emily [Law] in the creation of solo material as well as Santee’s collaboration with Michael Greyeyes as they develop film ideas, scripts, and shot lists for KDT’s upcoming film Love’s Threshing Floor, based on The Threshing Floor . Santee has also allowed me to observe meetings with marketing consultants, the general manager, the trust board, and advisers such as Duke Redbird. I have also attended the CAMAs (Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards), a Pow Wow in Hamilton, and I will be attending a gala event this coming weekend. So there have been a lot of very different elements to the internship and I feel very lucky.

Having been a choreographer for several years, I felt it was important to keep learning, and to invigorate my choreographic and creative process. I have been fairly prolific in choreographing works in New Zealand and to me it became obvious that I needed to re-fill my creative well, especially in relation to movement vocabulary and the process by which I workshop material with my dancers.

I was funded by CNZ (Creative New Zealand) to undertake this internship. CNZ offered this opportunity to apply to undertake an internship with an international artist to about five artists from all different art forms (who they saw as being “Internationally ready”). It was up to the individual artist to find the person whom they wanted to do the internship with. I chose Santee and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre primarily because I was impressed by the work, but also because I saw that her choreography is based on similar themes to mine. However the outcome is very different. The fact that her work comes from an indigenous female perspective was also very appealing. I am a female Maori choreographer working with contemporary dance, and we’re a rare breed in New Zealand. So I felt it was important to learn from another female indigenous choreographer. The movement vocabulary of her work is very developed and strong with a great physicality. There is a sense that the movement has a very integrated indigenous feel at the same time as being very contemporary. This is something I wanted to learn about from Santee. Over the years I have always wanted to develop a signature movement vocabulary and I have gone part – way to doing this, however I have found that because I wear so many hats in the creation process, from videographer to choreographer to set design, that often the focus on movement gets a little lost. Also because in New Zealand we get very little time to rehearse and devise our work this can also limit the development of choreography. Therefore this internship with Santee provided the ideal opportunity to focus on choreographic process and to get the chance to watch and learn from her.

Have you been doing what you expected? Or how has it been different?

I came into this internship with a very open mind and an open heart. I wanted to be open to the unexpected and allow myself to be carried along to wherever Santee’s work would take me. Having said that, Santee did email me a schedule, which gave me an outline of the things she would be working on. But even with this outline I still didn’t really know what to expect and I could never quite know what some things would entail. For example I had very little idea what the hoop dance was until the rehearsals and hoop making sessions with Rosa and Beanie.

This internship has covered so many aspects of the choreographic process from conceptual development, to the collaborative process with musicians, dancers and co-choreographers, to film and script development for the dance film Santee with be making with Michael Greyeyes. I have learnt so much by being with Santee and attending all the different events, rehearsals and meetings with her. To me it has been absolutely fascinating and I am very grateful for all these experiences that I may never get to have again. Santee has been so generous allowing me to go with her to everything.

There have been so many things I didn’t expect to be doing. One thing that really sticks out which has been awesome is how she has allowed me to learn the choreography alongside her dancers. It has been the best way for me to learn, much better than what I expected I would be doing – which was that I would be observing from the outside.

You’ve been shadowing Santee as she creates a new work based on the life and art of Norval Morrisseau, TransMigration. What’s been of particular interest throughout that process?

There have been many interesting aspects to how she approaches this work. I have been particularly interested in how well she plans for the work, through research, interviewing people, watching films etc. But also she really plans the script for a work so she has a very clear outline of what she is aiming to achieve. Also interesting have been the discussions we’ve had about how she would best like to portray certain aspects of Norval’s life., as she works through the options. I have also been interested in how she re-works and refines the choreographic material over time. She is not afraid to change and develop her choreography. I enjoy how grounded her choreography is (with a very deep plié) and the use of the torso. It has also been fascinating to meet her collaborator Barbara Croall and a contemporary of Norval’s, Duke Redbird.

Part II: On Toronto vs New Zealand, and being a video artist vs being a choreographer/dancer…tomorrow!