Rob Ruha: plenty of smiles. Photo: Erica Sinclair
Māori music sensation Rob Ruha is bringing his band and Kapa Haka group to Wellington for an Aotearoa Arts Festival gig with the NZSO.
Ruha will perform his own work "Teiwa" with the national orchestra and the eastern Bay of Plenty Kapa Haka ensemble, Te Taumata O Apanui.
"Teiwa" is an abbreviated version of Hineteiwaiwa, a deity responsible for creating Māori performance art.
Ruha spoke with RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump about the creation story behind Hineteiwaiwa and the beginning of Kapa Haka.
Apparently she had been charged with the job of finding someone who had taken something he shouldn't, Ruha told Crump.
However this chap had a gap in his front teeth, and if you made him smile (through music and dance, which was Hineteiwaiwa's strategy), he could be easily spotted.
Ruha created "Teiwa" with help from Mahuia Bridgeman-Cooper who arranged the music for orchestra.
He's confident the combined classical and Kapa Haka forces will bring plenty of smiles to the audience at the Michael Fowler Centre on 7 March.
