One of the country’s leading contemporary dance groups begins a national tour tonight after a two-year hiatus.
Black Grace is acclaimed for its fusion of vibrant dance and Pacific culture, and with the curtain going up on father's day, the director's family ties to Samoa are the inspiration for one of the new dances.
Artistic director Neil Ieremia explains his new piece honours his family.
“So O Le Olaga is a new work, a new dance work I've made and it's really in honour of my parents,” he said.
The name "O Le Olaga" means "life", it's a celebration of the lives of Siu and Kiona, the now elderly parents of Black Grace founder Neil Ieremia.
“They were actually in the rehearsal, the final rehearsals they came in and spent a week critiquing the work, mum's particularly good at that,” Ieremia said.
As for Siu, Ieremia says that “every now and then he'll sort of grunt and he'll go 'oh it's not so good' and I'll know it's the sign language… start again.”
The result is a dance reflecting childhood memories growing up in Wellington, strongly influenced by Ieremia’s family roots in Samoa, all to the strains of Vivaldi’s Gloria in D Major.
“It's always been a beautiful work .. it's always been very inspirational,” he said.
Inspiration is also drawn from the body tattoos of Ieremia’s father.
“He had that done in his early 60s and it's something you have done when you're a young man and you're strong .. it's a rite of passage,” he said.
He also pays homage to his mother's love of colourful clothes.
“The traditional Samoan, the bright colours, the bright flowers and growing up we'd think they look terribly ugly, please don't wear them to our school.”
But time’s moved on, their life stories now intertwined in this enchanting story that, perhaps, fittingly opens in Auckland tonight.
“When I found out we were performing on father's day I thought who planned that? No one's going to come, but actually, the theatres going to be full, lots of people are bringing their dads along."
But for dads with other plans, this celebration of life closes its season in Christchurch next Saturday.
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