Following the success of Memoirs of Active Service in 2006, leading Maori contemporary dance company Atamira Dance Collective returns to the stage in September to premiere Whakairo.

Part of the 2007 Tempo Festival, this new dance work by choreographer Moss Paterson is joined for this limited season by the short work Symbole et Realitie from guest New Caledonian choreographer Richard Digoue.Following the success of Memoirs of Active Service in 2006, leading Maori contemporary dance company Atamira Dance Collective returns to the stage in September to premiere Whakairo.

Part of the 2007 Tempo Festival, this new dance work by choreographer Moss Paterson is joined for this limited season by the short work Symbole et Realitie from guest New Caledonian choreographer Richard Digoue.The Maori art of carving or whakairo is the inspiration for this full-length dance work, which takes the audience on a journey of power, innocence, control, discovery and culture.

Using carving as an analogy for life, Whakairo explores the changing identity of contemporary Maori. In the same way as a carver approaches a block of wood, people carve out their own lives and with it their place in society.

Whakairo's high production values and artistic excellence includes a set designed by one of the country's leading contemporary Maori artists.

The second short work in this season, Symbole et Realitie, acknowledges the fusion of indigenous Pacific cultures and the oceans that link these cultures to each other.

This work is the culmination of the cultural exchange between New Caledonian choreographer Richard Digoue and Atamira as part of the New Caledonia New Zealand Season 2007.

When: Friday 28 September - Monday 1 October 8pm, Matinee Saturday 29 September, 2pm
Where: Concert Chamber, Town Hall at The Edge, Auckland
Tickets: $18-$30 (service fees apply)
Bookings: Ticketek 09 307 5000

9/7/07