A groundbreaking collaboration between Louise Pōtiki Bryant, Atamira Dance Company artists, and acclaimed composer Paddy Free, Ka Tiri o te Moana addresses the urgent issue of sea level rise due to Antarctic ice melt, and the profound impact of climate change on communities, both locally and globally.

  
To learn more about this work please visit:
https://atamiradance.co.nz/our-work/ka-tiri-o-te-moana

Ka Tiri o te Moana

 is a performance activation by Louise Pōtiki Bryant inspired by her video artwork 

 Exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o  Waiwhetū.

  emerged from Louise’s experiences before, during and after Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, and how the whenua transformed during the massive floods and slips - including in Piha where Louise lives. Whakahā explores waiting in the calm before the storm and the pause before Papatūānuku exhales.

Whakahā was commissioned for The Time of Waiting - a project which picks up on  key questions emerging from the major forthcoming publication 

Resetting the Coordinates: an anthology of performance art in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Image Courtesy of Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery. Image: Bri Leone-Rhea Lawrence.

Whakahā

Pūheke ("to flow") is a new solo work by Louise Pōtiki Bryant emerging out of her personal journey towards healing from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) / Māuiui whakaauau.

OCD is a very misunderstood condition characterised by continuous intrusive thoughts which in many cases lead to compulsions.

Compulsions are actions / rituals undertaken in an attempt to quell the anxiety brought about by the thoughts, however they only serve to increase the anxiety long-term. OCD can be very time consuming and debilitating in everyday life.

As part of her healing journey Louise has utilised mindful illustration and movement tools inspired by the movement of water and atua wāhine (female deities / ancestors) from Te Ao Māori.

In the creation of a drawing, Louise allows her thoughts to flow like water in time with each line drawn on a page. Over time her thoughts quieten and transmute into the drawing itself. Pūheke is inspired by this flow.

Pūheke is also inspired by mauri which in Te Ao Māori is the life force, animating energy and essential quality of a being or entity. Pūheke is an expression of Louise’s mauri evolving and transforming over time.

Pūheke

choreographed and designed by Louise Pōtiki Bryant was the first full-length work by 

 and tells the story of one man's journey from Te Waiora a Tāne to the next generation. Carrying the coins for the sale of his land and the wairua of a girl who shines brightly on the horizon, his journey weaves history, whakapapa, creation and imagination.

Ngāi Tahu 32

Onepū is a dance work choreographed by Louise Pōtiki Bryant for 

Onepū was made in collaboration with Ariana Tikao, the dancers and the creative team. The work is an expression of mana wāhine; the intrinsic spiritual power of women, and is inspired by a Kāi Tahu tradition as told by Teone Taare Tikao about six atua wahine (female deities) who control and release the principal winds of the world.


Teone Taare Tikao was born in 1850. As a boy he was sent by his father to study under two tohunga in Banks Peninsula, with whom he stayed for nearly ten years. In 1920 he was interviewed by historian Herries Beattie and a book was subsequently published in 1939. The book is Tikao Talks - Traditions and Tales of the Canterbury Maori as told by Teone Taare Tikao to Herries Beattie. In the book Tikao acknowledges six atua wahine who stand at different points on a sand bank named Pikopiko-i-whiti which encircles the world. Standing within the directions of the wind these atua are strong forces of nature with the enormous power of controlling and releasing the winds of the world.


Onepū is a meditation on the different qualities brought to us on the winds of each of these atua wahine:


Hine-aroaro-pari (Ariana Tikao) controls the pari-kalakalaka (pari-kārangaranga), the echoes on either inland or sea cliffs.


Hine-rōriki (Rosie Tapsell) holds and releases the powerful northerly winds.


Hine-pū-nui-o-toka (Louise Pōtiki Brayant) holds Te pū o te hau, the power of the wind in general, however her position is in the South West where she holds Te pū o te toka - the origin of the southerly winds. She is the mother of the other five wāhine, and is Māui’s grandmother.


Hine-aroraki (Jess Johns / Jasmin Canuel) whose name denotes soaring, controls the flight of birds. She is the oldest of the five daughters and is Māui’s mother.


Hine-rōtia (Presley Ziogas) holds and releases the westerly winds, one of which – the māuru – was known to bring tidings of those who have passed on.


Hine-hauone (Imogen Tapara) controls the easterly to northern winds. She finds Maui wrapped in a cloth after he had been placed out to sea by his mother Hine-aroraki who thought he was a whānau-karukaru (miscarriage). Hine-hauone nurses Māui to life.


Music Composition - Paddy Free and Ariana Tikao 

Onepū

is a poetic dance piece by Louise Pōtiki Bryant and 

 inspired by the childhood memories of Rona Williamson (Kāi Tahu). Set in 1934 during the Great Depression, young Rona, growing up in the care of her Great-Aunt in the small seaside town of Kaka Point, enters a magical landscape of her imagination. Bodies inhabit a world of seaweed, dust, feathers, water, wind and stone. A fantail echoes death, the moon and Rona-whakamautai guide the young girl, her Aunt, and the wider whānau through the struggles and phases of their lives. With bush clad hills to its back and the Southern Pacific Ocean spread out in front, Kaka Point is a magical place to live.

Choreography and Video Design: Louise Pōtiki Bryant

Music: Paddy Free and Richard Nunns (Taonga Puoro)

Scenography: Louise Pōtiki Bryant and Vanda Karolczak

and Louise Pōtiki Bryant as Rona Whakamautai

Video Highlights Credits: videography by Kelly Moynihan, Campbell Farquhar & Matt Gillanders, editing by Matt Gillanders

TAONGA dust water wind

is a collaboration with clay artist Paerau Corneal and is informed by the whakapapa of uku (clay) and the creation of Hine-ahu-one (the first woman formed from earth). With 

the texture of our skin is likened to that of a landscape - the skin being the biggest organ of the body and clay being the skin of our planet.

 is a work devised with the whakaahua dance practice known as Kiri tai / Kiri wai.

“A stunning collaboration between Louise Pōtiki Bryant, dance artist, and Paerau Corneal, clay worker, on the subject of skin, the whakapapa of clay itself and the creation story of Maoridom's first woman, Hine-ahu-one, opens Tempo 2014 in great style…Bryant’s lithe, beautiful and deeply expressive body tracing the evolution of rock, through water, to clay and, in Corneal's strong hands, the female form. She perfectly embodies a host of ancient spirits and totems throughout her one-hour movement marathon, and when Corneal steps forward to coat her in another layer of, this time, reddish clay, surrenders but still exquisitely articulates the subtle intent of the unmitigated substance itself. Paddy Free's score adds an immeasurable meaning to the action, gurgling and flowing, crashing and cracking in what becomes a mesmerising and inseparable dance between the ever-changing light patterns, designed by Bryant, the sound and the physical arts of two women.”

Kiri

In 2014 Louise Pōtiki Bryant was awarded the prestigious Harriet Friedlander New York Residency by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand and the performance work 

 grew out of her experience there. The premiere of 

 (hidden, out of sight, or lost) acknowledges the often hidden and faceless journey of losing oneself to an isolating mental illness. This multi-media work by Louise Pōtiki Bryant integrates a visceral solo performance and a dynamic video installation with music by Paddy Free and textile design by Rona Ngahuia Osborne. 

 also reflects upon our collective wellbeing and consciousness. Revealed and concealed within the work is Hinengaro - the hidden feminine and atua of the mind, consciousness and awareness. In a world where our senses are often dulled to cope with stimulation overload, 

 re-affirms a connection with sensual pathways and a reawakening to the ocean of consciousness.

Ngaro

  was a collaboration between Louise Pōtiki Bryant and taonga puoro (Māori traditional instruments) authority Richard Nunns. 

 had an original soundscape by Paddy Free with live accompaniment by Richard Nunns. The Tumutumu is a type of taonga pūoro - a percussion instrument which can be made from various types of stone including pounamu, or other materials such as wood and bone. The tumutumu is mostly associated with the southern part of Aotearoa and were used in whare wānanga (houses of learning) to accompany intoned learnings. The dance work 

 takes inspiration from Louise’s relationship with a particular tumutumu made from the root of a pōhutukawa tree. 

 integrates Louise’s whakaahua dance practice with her interdisciplinary and video art practices.

Tumutumu

Choreographed for the Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts Showcase 2025, Te Ata Kura is inspired by our interconnection with ngahere (forests) and the breath we share. Ngahere and people are intrinsically linked. We exist in a symbiotic relationship with rākau (trees) who nourish the whole ecosystem. 

Hā ki roto | Breathe in
Hā ki waho | Breathe out

In 2023, Louise experienced Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle which affected Piha, where she lives. Te Ata Kura is an ode to the trees who died there during this severe cyclone and the land slides which occurred as a consequence. In particular Te Ata Kura aims to honour the Rākau Rangatira - Pōhutukawa.

Te Ata Kura also envisions the possibility for regrowth, reforestation and the regeneration of the many kūkūwai (wetlands) throughout the motu and is inspired by the rhythms seen in te taiao (the natural world).