Charles Koroneho Research Seminar

Te Toki Haruru - the resounding adze
an indigenous conceptual platform for research and creative practice.

Monday 20th September, 2019 10am-12pm

The Octagon, Stables Building, Cnr Grant and Dodds Street, Southbank Campus.

“I was made into a pou and given a function to perform. My form was shaped according to that function and I became an object of culture, my eyes rolled back into their sockets, tongue protruding, hands and body trembling. After every breath, I expelled a noise and willingly accepted instruction. Many marks adorned my form and I was captured.

I was positioned in a place between my function and the world, it transformed me into a rock, then a bird and I settled on branches that were different. I become unraveled and anxious, prey to difference. I will consume myself and offer up an escape for change.

I chose performance to understand restriction, negotiate its contentious site and step into accepting my anxiety.

The adze can also shape and form a pou, that I desire.”

A presentation of Indigenous research concepts and methodologies created, written and conducted by Te Toki Haruru choreographer and collaborative director Charles Koroneho. The seminar will discuss the development of Koroneho’s independent artistic practice in Aotearoa New Zealand, the foundation of his intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches, international exchange projects and cultural collaborations.

Koroneho will discuss his formal background and training in Dance and Fine Arts; how performance informs his research, critical capacity and artistic vision. He will share some documentation of his projects in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

The seminar will be introduced by Professor Carol Brown, Head of Dance at Victorian College of the Arts; and Dr Danny Butt, Associate Director (Research) at VCA.

Biography 

Charles Koroneho works in the fields of performance and culture. He created Te Toki Haruru (est 1997) to explore cultural collaboration and the intersection between dance, theatre and design. His projects are presented as performances, workshops and research facilitation, exploring the collision between Maori cosmology, New Zealand society and global cultures.

His creative practice is an embodied research, employing Maori cultural perspectives that engage intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborative methodologies. Te Toki Haruru projects aim to bring together communities, to share artistic vision and explore political critique. Koroneho creates performance works; networks for artist support and development potential for future projects. He utilizes performance as the primary agent to convey dance opinion, indigenous creativity, philosophy and cultural commentary.

He is a founding member of Te Kanikani o Te Rangatahi, graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance and Elam School of Fine Arts. He has performed extensively in New Zealand and abroad with Te Toki Haruru, Lemi Ponifasio MAU, and worked in collaboration with Min Tanaka and Guillermo Gomez-Pena. He shares his vision of dance and performance by providing movement, improvisation classes and creative workshops for dancers, actors, performance artists and supports the arts community as a collaborative director, cultural consultant and mentor.

In 2014, Charles Koroneho was awarded The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Arts Laureate for Dance. He was appointed Adjunct Professor, 2017-18, Faculty of Creative Industries, Contemporary Dance Program, Unitec Institute of Technology.