HINE-2012

Contains adult themes and nudity.

Artistic Director: Tru Paraha
Producer: Jenny Stevenson
Performers: Tru Paraha and Cat Ruka
Lighting Designer: Sean Curham
Guest speakers include: Dudley Benson, Charles Koroneho and Shigeyuki Kihara.

HINE-2012 is an exciting independent production led by wahine innovators in performance. This is the first in a series of forums where artist, academic and activist communities converge through dance, performance art and conversation. Indigenous choreographers frame the body as a site for investigation and present their works in an evening of dynamic theatre. HINE-2012 promotes the transformative value of dance and its liberating effect on the individual and society.

The evening features a double-bill of experimental solos by choreographer Tru Paraha and performance artist Cat Ruka. The program also offers a post-performance discussion where the audience is invited to engage with artists and ideas. An open space is encouraged allowing for diverse identities, opinions and ways of meeting.
 

Supported by Creative NZ

Response to works by Tru Paraha

HINE:
... the abiding imagery of the evening for me came from Tru Paraha's HINE- collective. An extended and forceful haka wahine, bare feet on the ground, was followed by a contemporary woman who had not a single bone in her body as she struggled pathetically to keep her balance in heels-this-high. Then into a beautifully lit corridor entered a third dancer who serenely danced her exquisite poi across the width of the stage. E hine.
Jennifer Shennan - Dominion Post

...the programmes highlight for me was HINE- by HINE Collective choreographed by Tru Paraha, Kurahapainga Te Ua and Tuirina Wehi; this was an intense performance ritual which explored the female assassin. In parts aggressive and chilling, in others delicate and graceful, this was an unsettling and memorable work.
Ann Hunt - Danz Quarterly

Bloodearth Dark Ocean:
Bloodearth Dark Ocean was part of Auckland’s Matariki celebrations. It was staged in an unused heritage building on the slopes of Mt Eden, which added a celestial atmosphere... contemporary and subtle pulsing bird wing motifs added to the work’s magnetic spatial quality.
Francesca Horsley - New Zealand Listener

Mareikura - messengers of Io
`Mareikura - Messengers of Io', is a liberating and life giving performance, a ritualistic theatre work that sits as one of a trilogy of works by Tru Paraha ( Nga Puhi ). This is audacious Mãori dance theatre choreography... Arguably, `Mareikura `-Messengers of Io is one of the best Mãori Contemporary Dance works in Aotearoa today.
Terri Ripeka Crawford - Danz Quarterly

This mesmerizing piece is the work of Tru Paraha who choreographed, designed and performed... Paraha has left the techniques of ballet and contemporary dance in the wings and brought her own fresh vocabulary and imagery to a work that has the courage to unfold slowly, allowing us to travel with it all. In today’s fast world, that’s a miracle.
Jennifer Shennan - Dominion Post

Response to works by Cat Ruka:

New Treaty Militia
We dance along this dynamic line, this tacit negotiation, these issues as weighted as a giant poi swirling around the head of a Maori princess to the distorted soundtrack of the actual reality she will inevitably find – dangerous powerful creature, full of possibility.
Lyne Pringle - Theatreview

The piece is abstract, and refreshingly impossible to understand. It does not reek of the codified movement vocabulary which is propagated through schools of dance in this country. These are however, highly trained practitioners who have chosen a unique path of navigation.
Tru Paraha, Yellingmouth

Playing Savage
It’s a tour de force, more sad than angry, a devastating image of a society afraid of its own history.
Jennifer Shennan - Theatre view

Cat Ruka stood out…every dance-picture told a story and hers were the best in many respects even though she did not dance much.
Peter Cleave - Theatreview

Her intense dramatic focus and poetic insight disrupted stereotypes and gave voice to tino rangatiratanga.
Francesca Horsley - NZ Listener