Mere­mere is a pow­er­ful and mov­ing per­for­mance in which dancer Rod­ney Bell (Ngāti Maniapo­to) brings to life his incred­i­ble jour­ney; rang­ing from the highs of an inter­na­tion­al per­for­mance career to the lows of home­less­ness in Amer­i­ca to redemp­tion in the form of a return to Aotearoa and recon­nec­tion with his Māori and artis­tic her­itage. It opens at Cir­ca The­atre this Fri­day.

A crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed dancer and per­former, Bell is inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned for his phys­i­cal­ly inte­grat­ed per­for­mance and has been danc­ing pro­fes­sion­al­ly since 1994 when he began as a found­ing mem­ber of Touch Com­pass Dance Trust.  Bell relo­cat­ed to Cal­i­for­nia in 2007 to join AXIS Dance Com­pa­ny as prin­ci­pal dancer.  He won numer­ous awards, includ­ing a cov­et­ed Isado­ra Dun­can Dance Award in 2009.  In 2012, Bell’s life start­ed to unrav­el. The cat­a­lyst was a fire that burnt down the apart­ment block in which he was liv­ing. Bell lost every­thing and found it dif­fi­cult to find a new home. Then his work with AXIS end­ed, and lack­ing the means to come home, he fell into home­less­ness. Bell spent the next three years nav­i­gat­ing the streets of San Fran­cis­co, sleep­ing on park bench­es and in home­less shel­ters, before – with the assis­tance of San Fran­cis­co based char­i­ty HandUp – he was final­ly able to return to New Zealand.

“It was a time of learn­ing to endure” Bell says. “You draw on super­hu­man pow­ers when you’re in sur­vival mode. On the cold­est nights I’d wrap clothes around my head. I’d be able to sleep through a lot of it because I was super tired. Nego­ti­at­ing the streets is a marathon. You’re always mov­ing, try­ing to find essen­tials like run­ning water.”

The work pow­er­ful­ly lay­ers move­ment, pro­ject­ed imagery and doc­u­men­tary footage to bring his sto­ries to life in an hour-long work. A beau­ti­ful, and inti­mate per­for­mance expe­ri­ence that invites the audi­ence inside this unique and inspi­ra­tional mem­oir. Mere­mere fea­tures live music by renowned com­pos­er Eden Mul­hol­land.

Per­former and cre­ator Rod­ney Bell; Direc­tor Malia John­ston; In part­ner­ship with Touch Com­pass Dance Trust. Col­lab­o­rat­ing Artists include, Rowan Pierce (Audio Visu­al), Tui Mati­ra Ranapiri-Rans­field (Tikan­ga, Te Reo, Matau­ran­ga Maori Dra­maturg), Emma Willis (Dra­matur­gy), John Ver­ryt (Set Design), Ruby Rei­hana-Wil­son (Light­ing), Ian Ham­mond (Graph­ic Design).

  • Mere­mere on at Cir­ca The­atre 22–30 June 2018