This weekend we want to go to . . .
Aotea Centre
Great music inspires great dance as the Royal New Zealand Ballet proves when it combines Mozart with dances by two of the greatest choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries — Jiri Kylian and George Balanchine — with a new commission from Birmingham-based Christchurch-born Corey Baker which took him, and dancer Madeleine Graham, all the way to Antarctica to craft.
Dancing with Mozart, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, tonight-Sunday
And around the corner from the ASB Theatre, there’s a multi-awardwinning production which captures one young man’s passions for acting, dance and music. Jacob Dombroski, aka Big J, grew up as a young Samoan/ Ma¯ ori who also happened to be born with Down syndrome. His story highlights struggles he faces for being perceived as “different” and how the pain he experienced through bullying was flipped to create a call-out for acceptance and truth.
Pah Homestead
Waru is one of the best New Zealand films of the 21st century. So far. An ambitious and powerful body of A scene from one of eight short films within the ambitious and powerful work, the film tells eight beautiful stories, each affected by the same harrowing event in the death of a child at the hands of his caregiver. This weekend, as part of the Matariki Festival, the Women of Waru Film Programme presents eight short films made by the Ma¯ ori women who created Waru, to be screened at Pah Homestead. Curated by Wairoa Ma¯ oriland Film Festival founder Leo Koziol and Waru producer Kerry Warkia, the screening is in the AV Gallery and is free with gallery entry. The Matariki programme continues with two stunning theatrical works telling vastly different Ma¯ ori stories.
HGo to nzherald.co.nz for reviews which Pah Homestead is screening free with gallery entry on Sunday.
Upstairs in the Studio is Maumahara Girlie, a contemporary show adapted from artist Mya Morrison-Middleton’s interactive script at Window Gallery last year. Described as a mixture of theatre, visual installation, myth and seminar, the show analyses the lives of Ma¯ ori grappling with decolonisation and urbanisation. In the main space, Te Waka Huia is a play inspired by the tragic Brynderwyn bus crash in 1963, offering a fictionalised tribute to those who lost their lives, and how the loss has been carried by generations since.