Poster image for Pōhutu. We see the unclothed backs of two women lying on their sides. One is curled on top of the other. Pōhutu is a mul­ti­di­men­sion­al con­tem­po­rary dance piece that thrives in lim­i­nal space. Draw­ing par­al­lels between Chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Bian­ca Hyslop’s grandmother’s diag­no­sis of Alzheimers and the geot­her­mal land­scape she grew up in, it’s an unset­tling and utter­ly beau­ti­ful work.

The begin­ning and end sequences draw gasps from the audi­ence. The mid­dle sequences con­tain some of the most com­pelling imagery I’ve seen in per­for­mance. Hys­lop and fel­low per­former and devi­sor Rosie Tapsell stride, leap, slink, and roll through the set and light pro­jec­tions by Rowan Pierce. Their move­ment is tur­bu­lent, some­times empha­sised by judi­cious use of strobe light­ing. Their part­ner work plays with grav­i­ty and mass, evok­ing gey­sers, rivers, stone and earth­quakes. The cos­tumes by Emma Rans­ley peel away while translu­cence and opac­i­ty alter­nate. They are enchant­i­ng. Haze becomes anoth­er per­former set­tling heav­i­ly on stage, drift­ing out towards the audi­ence. Tūī Mati­ra Ranapiri-Rans­field is the Mātan­ga Mātau­ran­ga Māori and this is infused through­out the per­for­mance. 

Pōhutu is a mul­ti­di­men­sion­al con­tem­po­rary dance piece that thrives in lim­i­nal space. I feel the truth of the whakataukī Kia whakatō­muri te haere whaka­mua as I watch. The past, the present, and the future exist at the same time in the same space. We walk back­ward into our futures build­ing on the knowl­edge from the past. All the ele­ments cohere in bal­ance.

Incred­i­ble.

Con­tent warn­ing: includes strobe light­ing, haze, nudi­ty.