Louise Pōtiki Bryant
Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha

Louise Pōtiki Bryant is a New Zealand Arts Laureate, an award-winning choreographer, and a multi-media artist. She weaves dance, video, installation, animation, painting, and film to create layered and meaningful art works. With her practice she aims to honour her whakapapa (genealogy), mana wahine (intrinsic spiritual power of women), and mātauraka Māori (Māori knowledge) and to inspire the care, protection and regeneration of the whenua, moana, and awa.

Louise was awarded the prestigious Harriet Friedlander Residency by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand which saw her based in New York City for 2016. Other residencies include the Ngāi Tahu Artist Residency at the Dunedin School of Art, a Wild Creations Residency, and the Caroline Plummer Fellowship in Community Dance at the University of Otago in 2014.

Louise is a founding member of Atamira Dance Company for whom she has choreographed six works, including Ngāi Tahu 32 ('Best contemporary dance production 2004', NZ Listener), Te Aroha me te mamae ('Best New Choreographer 2003', NZ Listener), and TAONGA: Dust Water Wind (Best Production, Best Music, and Best Scenography). In addition Louise has choreographed for companies such as The New Zealand Dance Company, Black Grace Dance Company and Ōrotokare, Art, Story, Motion. A major influence on Louise’s practice has been her collaboration with Prof Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal and his research into historical whare tapere. Their collaboration spanned eight years and culminated in the dance work Te Kārohirohi - the light dances.

Louise also has a body of solo dance and collaborative performance works, including Kiri, a highly acclaimed collaboration with clay artist Paerau Corneal. Kiri is informed by the whakapapa of uku / clay and explores the integrity of clay in a pre-ceramic state. Kiri has been presented nationally and internationally, including in the Matriarch’s Uprising Programme at Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver, Canada. Louise’s performance works have a strong interdisciplinary focus. She photographs, designs, animates and edits the projected video elements - an integral part of each performance.

Louise also creates video and digital dance installations including Te Taki o te Ua / The Sound of Rain, a collaboration with Ariana Tikao and Paddy Free addressing the effects of climate change, particularly in relation to extreme weather patterns. Te Taki o te Ua was exhibited in Māori Moving Image ki te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch Art Gallery. The digital dance installation Blood Water Earth is a collaboration with multi-media artist Santee Smith and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, exploring the reawakening of the sacred feminine, its symbolic ritual renewal, and a conscious stripping away of colonial impacts on Indigenous women.

Other recent video installations include Te Korowai a Kahukura, a site-specific work commissioned for the 30 metre video wall at Te Ara Ātea, as part of the Herbarium Exhibition, Te Au o Te Moana, commissioned for Te Rā: The Māori Sail exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, and Te Hā o Papatūānuku - a video work commissioned and acquired by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

Louise also designs video for opera, music and dance productions. Most recently Louise created a one hour video work to accompany the performances of Bird Like Men by art music quartet Tararua. She has also designed video for three Kaha:wi Dance Theatre productions, and for multiple works by Atamira Dance Company including Te Wheke, a work honouring the legacy of Atamira Dance company’s first 20 years.

Louise has also created seven dance films, and several music videos, including Ariana Tikao’s Tuia which won Best Music Video at the ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada. The Mana Moana Collective commissioned Louise to create three dance films as part of a series of films projected onto water screens at arts festivals, nationally and internationally, between 2019 and 2024. Louise’s film Tūātea currently screens on the Mana Moana Digital Ocean, an immersive digital art experience on-line. Tūātea also featured online as part of the 15th Nuit Blanche, Toronto.

Louise’s film Roto, commissioned by the Festival of Colour, has also screened at the ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival 2018, the Wairoa Māori Film Festival 2018, and Matariki Shorts 2018 and her film Whakaruruhau has been exhibited at the Pasifika Styles Festival in Cambridge, U.K. Whakaruruhau has also screened at the 9th Festival of Pacific Arts in Palau.

Her film Aoraki was part of the Dateline Return Exhibition at the Govett Brewster Gallery and screenings of Aoraki have included the Pool 07 International Film Festival, the International Dance Film Festival in Yokohama, Japan. In 2015, Louise co-directed the dance film Kurawaka in collaboration with Kura Te Ua and Hawaiki TŪ, and in 2022, Louise co-directed, edited and created the animations the film Te Mata by Taane Mete.

Photo Credit: Jinki Cabronero