Battery Dance Festival

The director of the Battery Dance Festival invited us to present a work for their 2016 summer festival. This is one of our favorite stages because its on the water, you can see Lady Liberty in the background, and we were so lucky to have such a picturesque, watery backdrop for our dances that honored the ocean.

Rumaruma Te Ata

One of my favorite memories is of a woman telling us of her experience. “The clouds moved, and the moon shined down, as a ship passed by, it was perfectly timed, ow did you guys do that?”

Ote’a Te Mana O Te Moana

The overarching theme of the production is based in Moana Nui, the great Pacific Ocean and our peoples relationship to it. With regards to ocean navigation and how it implies to our contemporary lives today there is much that can be learned from our experiences with the ocean, both in turbulent and still times.

Pate Moutou Agaga

The Polynesians have several different classifications and names for different ocean currents. Continuing with our ocean theme, this iteration of Pate Moutou Agaga, which has seen many different versions, as a group dance and solo, was formed into a duet to represent how the different currents we traverse throughout our lives affect who we grow to become.

Ote’a No Te Va’a

Depicting the va’a (canoe) on the various and ever-changing ocean currents, this ote’a solo is short but complex. It starts slow and progressively gets more intense, and ends in a victorious sail across the ocean.

Tatau Tupuna

We ended our presentation with a heartfelt ‘aparima, honoring our tupuna, our ancestors, those that have come before, and shared their genius through the generations. We strive to stay rooted in these traditions tattooed in our hearts and on our bodies and do our best to expand on them in our contemporary world.

This project truly was one of our most successful Global Harmony projects, bringing together dancers of several dance groups and drummers and musicians from the community.

E Mauruuru A vau

Since we were asked to close the evening, we offered a short and sweet, audience participatory Ori Tahiti lesson at the close of our performance . In the end “We had New York City holding hands”. It was a very special event.