November 28, 2023
Hokioi flies again in Royal dance
A dance work drawing connections between the extinct hokioi or Haast’s eagle that used to dominate our southern skies and the golden eagle has finally had its North American premiere in Cincinatti, Ohio.
Hōkioi me te Vwōhali (pronounced a-WO-huh-lee) is a collaboration between Taiaroa Royal and his Okareka Dance Company and Cincinatti’s Exhale Dance Tribe.
It was unveiled at the New Zealand Arts Festival in Wellington in early 2020, but the Covid pandemic delayed its US performances.
Royal says it got an incredible response.
“The audiences really connected with the wairua of the work, with the whole content kaupapa of the work. They didn’t necessarily understand what they were seeing but they felt what they were seeing and I think that’s just as important as knowing what the work is about,” he says.
Taiaroa Royal says a delay in getting work visas interrupted plans to present the dance to a Cherokee group in North Carolina, who told him during its development that they were aware of the hokioi as an older brother to their own rangatira manu.