Together

TOGETHER
Karlia Cook

TOGETHER is an inter-cultural dance performance that conjures the ancestral presence of human and non-human kin, through the meeting and co-existing of four pan-indigenous dance artists.

This project is a collaborative and co-led initiative involving Bella Waru (Ngāti Tukorehe, Taranaki Tūturu), Danni Cook (Ngāpuhi), Amelia O’Leary (Gamilaroi Yinarr) and Karlia Cook (Ngāpuhi). It is grounded in the rich tapestry of kinship-based indigenous knowledge, linking all of existence in mutually beneficial relationship across deep time and space.

As emerging and experimental choreographers we are planting the seeds to develop and honour a choreographic practice that is ever nurturing and evolving. Shifting perspective from a colonial patriarchal lens to a soul enriching perspective of First Nations matriarchal control, offering the gift of what this world is missing .

Karlia Cook Bio

Karlia is a dance artist of European, Mā’ohi and Māori descent, hailing from Norfolk Island, Hitiaurevareva (Pitcairn Island) and Ngāpuhi iwi on the North Island of Aotearoa. Karlia’s dance practice is grounded in the embodiment of listening and honouring the ever-evolving relationality between her body her ancestry and the lands and water she grew up on and travels between.

Karlia is currently based in Geelong working as a freelance dancer and choreographer and in 2023 completed a Masters in Dance from the Victorian College of the Arts. Previous to this she graduated from WAAPA in 2021 and since then has worked with companies and artists such as Chunky Move, Joel Bray Dance, New Zealand Dance Company, Strut dance, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Guts dance, Julie Minaai and Bella Waru. Alongside this, Karlia recently choreographed and performed a new work two thread, presented at Dancehouse in collaboration with her sister Danni.