KAUPAPA | ABOUT

Kia Pohewatia

To imagine, to dream, to conjure, to create, to envision.

Kia Pohewatia is Atamira Dance Company’s choreographic residency programme dedicated to supporting Māori choreographers in developing new works. Through studio time, mentorship, and collaboration with Atamira artists, this residency offers a space for research, experimentation, and the early shaping of future projects.

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Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann’s work draws on indigenous performance methodologies, activating space through whakapapa, memory, and embodied storytelling. Honouring place-based knowledge and the unique histories within each body, her work creates intimate connections between audiences and whenua through movement and non-linear narratives. This work incorporates improvisation, object manipulation and moving images to explore the nested system of Ōpānuku as an alive and evolving force. This presentation includes a sharing of Rachel’s research and insights behind the work.

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Rachel's roots are in Ōtepoti, Dunedin, where she started exploring the intersections of design, community, performance and ecology through art and performance making, as well as taking an active role for her hapū, Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki.

Over the past fifteen years of living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau, she has continued her interdisciplinary practice, making and collaborating with a number of local choreographers and dance makers, as well as teaching across the city, including for Wellesley Studios, Unitec Dance Degree, Auckland University, Touch Compass Dance Company, Dance Plant Collective and Atamira Dance Company. She has facilitated camps, workshops, wānanga and public dance classes both in person and online. Rachel lives in West Auckland with her partner and two daughters, and spends her spare time running around the beaches and wild spaces of Tāmaki Makaurau.

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Atamira Dance Company is a leading force in Māori contemporary dance, fostering artistic excellence, nurturing talent, and creating transformative experiences that resonate globally. It uplifts, inspires, leads, and celebrates the richness of te ao Māori through performances, collaborations, and advocacy, honouring mātauranga Māori through storytelling that connects celestial wisdom with earthly expression.

NGĀ TĀNGATA | CAST & CREATIVES

Kaikanikani & Kaitito Nekehanga | Dancer/Choreographer — Rachel Rucktuhl-Mann