Copper Promises - A Journey of Exploring One's Identity

                                           

           

Copper Promises: Hinemihi Haka is a mesmerizing dance performance featuring Australian performer, choreographer and visual artist, Victoria Hunt, celebrating a personal journey back to her Maori cultural heritage. Presented at The Dance Center: Vancouver, in collaboration with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Hunt’s solo performance wove together her experiences of connecting with her ancestors, the culture and the land. The creative team of interdisciplinary artists enhanced Hunt’s movement, through stunning computer-generated imagery, explosive sounds and intricate lighting, as she embodied the spirit of her ancestor Hinemihi.

The silence of the opening scene is interrupted by the piercing sound of a strong background baritone voice, that introduced the audience to Hunt’s four phases within her journey, The Spirit of Hinemihi, Acts of Transgression, Ancestral House — Ancestral Body and The Spirit of the People. The audience’s senses were quickly stimulated with bright luminescent lights electrocuting Hunt’s figure, along with intolerable, sharp pitched sounds. Solo artist, Hunt wore a simplistic light blue silk dress, which exhibited her strong physique and her untamed, curly hair represented the struggle she faced in her journey. Within the darkness and silence of the stage, her simplistic, minimalistic gestural movement was purposeful and respectful, which could have suggested the care and sensitivity that she felt for the land and her ancestors. At times, Hunt’s body was adorned with bright lights and her movement became animalistic, inorganic and unnatural, which may have suggested the turbulence she experienced in searching for her true self. 

As the piece intensifies, Hunt transforms her movement into strong dynamic gestures, which may have conveyed the strength of the relationship between the land and the Māori culture that developed over time. In one defining moment, the lighting technician created a visual illusion of Hunt treading through water, which could have suggested the internal and external conflict with her identity within the Maori heritage. In the last few minutes of the performance, the sound of strong winds encapsulated the theatre, as Hunt proclaimed that her “Body is abandoned by spirit”.

Through Copper Promise’s inter-disciplinary choreography, the audience was immersed in Hunt’s emotional personal narrative, which connected her with the land and culture of her Indigenous, Polynesian ancestors of New Zealand. Hunt’s breath-taking integration of movement, sound, imagery and lights allowed the audience to be part of her journey.