Cross-culture collaboration
Sharron Pardoe talks to Māori choreographer Eddie Elliott ahead of the debut of one of the major works of the Singapore International Festival of Arts.
Eddie Elliott (Ngāti Maniapoto) bounces into view on my computer. It’s 10am on a Tuesday and the young choreographer is taking a quick break from his second day of rehearsals for a major work that will premiere in just over three weeks’ time.
It’s been a year in the making, he says, starting when he popped into the Performing Arts Market (PANZ) in Auckland early last year to help pitch his dance works, including the powerful Uku – Behind the Canvas, part of Whenua which was recently seen in Wellington as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
Many of the delegates at the market were connected with festivals, and dance companies around the world including Natalie Hennedige, the festival director for the Singapore International Festival of Arts. (SIFA)
“Natalie had seen two of my works that had been presented on video,” he says. “She was looking for a young choreographer with a profile in Aotearoa, one voicing kaupapa Māori performing arts.”
They were introduced, caught up for coffee, and that ended with an invitation to form a collaboration with Saufan Johari, a Singaporean music producer and sound designer, to produce one of the major works for this year’s SIFA – SUARA/Oro Rua.
The work merges musicians, four vocalists and six New Zealand dancers in a cross-cultural confluence of cultures. Suara means “voice sound” in Malay and “oro rua” in Māori is to resonate.
Elliott, says It brings the Māori concept of Te Kore, the ‘void’ that exists beyond the world of everyday experience, together with the sonic history of the Earth – which tells how hundreds of millions of years of evolution and communication happened in silence before living creatures found their voices.
Two months later Elliott joined Johari in Singapore and the co-directors workshopped to see how they could collaborate. The pair came up with a storyboard to hone in on the concept and then wrote down a score.
“We were planning for months, separately, and there were a lot of Zoom meetings,” Elliott laughs.
Now the pair are together in Auckland, finalising the music and performance in the busy lead up to opening night on May 24 at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre.
“Saufan’s making music as we speak,” Elliot tells me. “The dancers are getting warmed up and then we’ll go in there and I’ll make choreography.”
The dancers are working seven to eight hours a day and once the company moves to Singapore on May 8 there will be a week or so to work with the vocalists to merge the whole show together. “And then we perform the week after that,” Elliot says It may seem like a short rehearsal period but Elliot says that’s usually how it works for contemporary dancers. “We have five weeks to build the show and then we premiere.”
And what does he hope audiences will take away from the performance?
“It might seem cliched, but … I hope that they can get a reference from both cultures and their strengths, but also a universal culture that's been built from two cultures coming together.”
He believes a new language of art has been created and hopes that the culture they have built together will be amplified into the world, internationally. He is also confident the show will travel.
“There’s a lot of presenters coming to Singapore to watch it, it’s a massive show … we're hoping to bring it back to Aotearoa too. Hopefully next year.”
It’s also been expensive and he’s grateful for the support of Creative New Zealand and the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
At just 31, Elliott has a huge pedigree as a dancer and choreographer, often exploring themes rooted in his cultural heritage, particularly from Te Ao Māori. He’s worked with leading arts companies in Aotearoa – including
Atamira Dance Company, Black Grace, and The New Zealand Dance Company - and has been nominated for numerous awards. He is a 2013 graduate of the Performing and Screen Arts Programme at Unitec and has performed all round the world.
Elliot has built an indigenous relationship with Red Sky Performance in Canada and is in his fifth year as an associate artist with that company and he has recently returned from the Holland Dance Festival in Germany and the Netherlands, where the New Zealand Dance Company received a standing ovation for Whenua.
Elliot is excited for SUARA/Oro Rua, and is keen to head back into the rehearsal room.
But as soon as he arrives back from Singapore he’s straight into a new commission, choreographing a work with Bianca Hyslop as part of a double bill with Atamira Dance Company.
“We started developing the work and have eight weeks to build onto that before its premier at Q Theatre. And, hopefully, we’ll bring it to Wellington, most of my family lives there,” he says, before waving goodbye.
– The Singapore International Festival of Arts runs from May 17-June 2.