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Taurite – Haka Dance Theatre Forging New Pathways For Performing Arts In Te Ao Māori

Celebrated Māori performance company Hawaiki TŪ return to the stage this September with their award-winning work Taurite. Following the runaway success of the secondary school’s performances of ‘Autaia’ - Haka Theatre, twenty performers are set to fill the stage with a stunning fusion of dance, ngā taonga tuku iho (treasures of traditional heritage steeped in ancestral roots), mesmeric soundscapes and harmonious waiata set against an epic-scale set complete with 3D projection mapping. The next exciting evolution of Taurite plays at the Aotea Centre’s Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre from 1 - 3 September.

Vibrating with the call for us to have balance in our world, Taurite is anchored in Te Ao Māori, touching on the dualities of light and darkness, earth and sky, our babies and our ancestors.
- Dione Joseph, NZ Herald

Celebrating the milestone of their tenth birthday, Hawaiki TŪ is a haka theatre company with a mission to shape and inspire the future of Māori performing arts. Under the leadership of Kura Te Ua (Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Te Whakatōhea, Tūhoe), the company is known for continually challenging understandings of what haka theatre is and can be and exploring the explosive potential of the collision of kapa haka, indigenous storytelling, dance and the conventions of theatre.

Taurite (Interpreted in English as “the art of balance”) is a landmark work created with the long-term support of Auckland Live, that continues the company’s legacy of forging new pathways for haka and theatre in mainstage performing arts spaces.

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First developed as part of Auckland Live’s Fringe Town for Auckland Fringe 2020, Taurite was a festival hit: in addition to blowing audiences away, it took out Best Dance, Pick of the Fringe and Best of the Fringe awards. The work then returned to the stage at Auckland Town Hall’s Great Hall, in a collaboration with Te Manu Huia Kapa Haka group, and was live streamed across Aotearoa and beyond to locations as far flung as Belgium, and French Polynesia.

Life-affirming images of a world restored to balance post-Covid are at the heart of Taurite, a remarkable collaboration from haka theatre company Hawaiki TŪ
Raewyn Whyte, Theatreview

For this upcoming evolution of Taurite, Te Ua has assembled a village of creative luminaries and heavyweights, legacy members of Hawaiki TŪ, and their tamariki. Creative collaborators include contemporary Māori dance legend Charles Koroneho (Ngāpuhi, Te Mahurehure, Te Parawhau, Ngāti Hau); Arts Foundation Laureate and Founder of Black Grace, Neil Ieremia ONZM; actor and champion haka performer Te Kohe Tuhaka (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tūhoe); Arts Foundation Laureate, choreographer, performer and video artist Louise Potiki-Bryant (Ngāi Tahu); and celebrated theatre and television designer Jane Hakaraia (Ngāti Raukawa). The creators of Taurite have, for the most part, been raised te ao Māori - on the marae where te reo is the first language and tikanga is integral to everyday life. 
 

This is bigger than me... it requires a village of conscious collective creativity, bravery, and trust. Let us bind up! Whitiki taua! Kia eke panuku, eke Tangaroa!’ - Kura Te Ua
 

Hawaiki TŪ invites all of Aotearoa New Zealand to share in this powerful and uplifting new style of performance. The kaupapa of this work acknowledges the profound evolution of our nation through COVID-19, the regeneration of customary practices including the renaissance of the Maramataka (the Māori lunar calendar) and the current shift in mana and balance of power in Aotearoa between tangata whenua and non-Māori New Zealanders.

Haka theatre is thought to have first developed in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1920s, when Princess Te Puea Herangi formed a band that explored Māori and Western performance styles as they fundraised to build a new marae at Turangawaewae in Ngāruawāhia. Over a century later, the form continues to find new purpose as Kura Te Ua and her ensemble of creatives give voice to this meaningful and electrifying live experience.

TAURITE
Presented by Hawaiki TŪ and Auckland Live

1 - 3 September 2021
7 pm evening shows 
2 September
11 am matinee
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre

Tickets: $15 - $40*
Onsale from 9 am Tue 3 August, available via aucklandlive.co.nz/show/taurite
*booking fees apply

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