Yuki Kihara: Them and Us

A free PowerPoint presentation and full screening of the ‘THEM AND US’ dance production presented by Yuki Kihara will be held at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland on Saturday 30 April in association with the solo exhibition of A Study of a Samoan Savage.

‘THEM AND US’ premiered at Sophiensaele Theater in Berlin in September 2015 and toured 13 shows across Germany and Switzerland. TanzForumBerlin

Co-directed by Yuki Kihara and Jochen Roller with three dancers from Auckland-based TATAU Dance Group, ‘THEM AND US’ explored the choreographic similarity of the Samoan Fa’ataupati dance and the German Schuhplattler dance. The dance production played on the ‘othering’ of indigenous cultures by western art makers and re-wrote the hierarchical narrative of what is perceived as “primitive”-indigenous culture (THEM) and “developed”-Western culture (US) in order to transform this binary structure into a complex cultural hybrid in which differences and similarities engage in an ironic play on the power structures between the First and Third worlds.

30 April, 1-1pm

Lopdell House Seminar Room
418 Titirangi Rd, next to Te Uru