Lemi Ponifasio

Lemi Ponifasio is acclaimed internationally for his radical work as a choreographer, director and designer. His work is recognized for its blend of ceremonial staging, activism and collaboration with communities.

Ponifasio has presented his creations worldwide, including the Lincoln Center in New York, the Festival d’Avignon, the BAM in New York, the Ruhrtriennale, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Theater der Welt Festival, the Festival de Marseille, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, London’s Southbank Centre, the Holland Festival, the Luminato Festival in Toronto, the Vienna Festival, the Santiago a Mil Festival in Chile, the Venice Biennale and throughout the Pacific region.

His collaborators are people from all walks of life performing in factories, remote villages, opera houses, schools, marae, castles, galleries and stadiums. His projects have included fully-staged operas, theatre, dance, exhibitions, community forums and festivals in over 30 countries.

Lemi Ponifasio was born in Samoa and founded his company MAU in 1995, proceeding to work with diverse cultures and communities from around the Pacific and from around the world. ‘Mau’ in Samoan means a declaration to the truth of a matter.

Lemi Ponifasio is based in Auckland, New Zealand. His theatre vision is constructed in black-as-night architecture in the state of a dignified decelerated presence transcending visual art, dance, poetry, ceremony and civic activism. The bodies of the MAU performers bring landscapes, spirits, birds, gods and angels to life – ephemeral ambassadors of theatre’s archaic origins and guides to cosmic consciousness.

His recent work includes Standing in Time (2017) with the all-female company MAU Wahine, Die Gabe der Kinder (2017) with children and young people of Hamburg, Ceremony of Memories (2016 and 2017) with Mapuche people of Chile, Recompose (2016) with Maori and Syrian women at the Herrenhausen Festival in Hannover, the installation Lagimoana for the 2015 Venice Biennale, Apocalypsis (2015) in Toronto, I AM: Mapuche (2015) in Chile and I AM (2014) at the Festival d’Avignon, a production marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

Other international work by Lemi Ponifasio and MAU includes The Crimson House (2014), Stones in Her Mouth (2013–16), Birds with Skymirrors (2010–14), Orff’s opera Prometheus (2012), Le Savali: Berlin (2011) with immigrant communities in Berlin, Tempest: Without a Body (2008–11), Requiem (2006–08) and Paradise (2003–05).