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WAISTS IN, TONGUES OUT... New Zealand Maori and other Polynesian warriors performing a haka, or traditional Maori war dance, one of them carrying a stone which symbolises the mana (prestige and honour) of the tribe as they come ashore at a Gisborne, New Zealand beach.

AUCKLAND: When Black Grace, New Zealand's only professional, all-male Maori and Polynesian modern dance company, first hit the stage seven years ago many in the audience expected raunchy strippers while some envisaged a bunch of rugby players hamming it up.

Others had images of an overtly Pacific-flavoured performance with traditional dance movements and motifs.

The show fulfilled none of these expectations but was a sell-out anyway with exquisitely honed dancers from a range of Pacific Island backgrounds performing an eclectic mix of dance styles that included urban, Pacific, contemporary and traditional.

The company has since gone from strength to strength, with upcoming tours next year to Australia, the Netherlands and the Edinburgh Festival.

Founder and artistic director Neil Ieremia told AFP that Black Grace had broken new ground by not con-forming to male stereotypes or the pressure to be fashionably Polynesian.

"The Polynesian and Maori aspects that we really embrace in Black Grace aren't to do with movement but to do with psychology and family ideals and our value system," Ieremia said.

Neither does the company of six operate in a typical hierarchical dance company mode.

While Ieremia creates a major work every year, all dancers are en-couraged to create and choreograph their own dances, which are per-formed in their highly popular New Works series.

"We're based more on an old Sa--moan village system where there are chiefs and a high chief, but it's all very relaxed. We laugh a great deal but at same time are very serious about what we do," Ieremia said.

Their latest New Works season, which has just finished in Auckland, has charmed audiences with a simi-larly unusual format to the one that first launched them.

The show begins with a pitch-dark stage and the sound of rhythmic clapping.

As soft lights slowly come on, the dancers are revealed standing in a semi-circle singing a harmonious ballad with Ieremia playing guitar accompaniment.

Each of the six short dance works that follow are introduced by the dancers who created them, with brief, frank, funny and touching descriptions of how they came about. The range includes pieces to Tchaikovsky and techno-beat, the Hollies, Handel and some hip-hop. The variety also reflects the diverse ethnic and social mix of the group, with Maori, Cook Island, Niuean, Tongan and Samoans.

ALL TOGETHER NOW... Maori men from New Zealand perform the haka war dance with Maori women during the first-ever national native American Pow Wow hosted by the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, DC. - AFP Photo

"Everyone is different. We have a Christian, some screaming queens a real mix of people, but we all respect each other," Ieremia said.

What bonds them is the urge to communicate through dance. "Polynesians and Maori have an oral history. We were always told stories about our ancestors by our parents and grandparents, so we are storytellers," Ieremia said.

 

While many Maori and Polynesians are brought up with traditional dance and song as part of everyday life as well as for birthdays, weddings and deaths, few could envisage dancing fulltime for a living.

But these days more men are going to dance schools, although Ieremia said there were some who ridiculed them.

"You still get the small-minded, small country syndrome when people who ask: 'What do you do?' If you say: 'I dance,' they say: 'We all dance mate... after a few beers'."

Ieremia, who grew up in the poor, tough, mainly Maori and Polynesian neighbourhood of Porirua near Wellington, never attended any dance classes until he quit his bank job and left home at 19.

 

STARTING YOUNG... members of the Kelston Boys High School performing their traditional Maori dance at the 25th annual Maori and Pacific Island Secondary School Festival in Auckland. - AFP Photo

He began dancing aged 11 in the secrecy and privacy of his living room at home to get rid of pent-up energy.

Diagnosed with a weak heart from a bout of rheumatic fever when he was seven, he was forbidden to do the physical and sporting activities other children his age enjoyed.

When his sister spied him dancing, she asked him to make up a dance performance for the local church youth group. He loved the experience, kept at it and at 17 went on a nationwide dance tour.

Ieremia was then invited to join a performing arts course in Auckland and, after dancing with several established dance companies in New Zealand, he started his own. -AFP