Inese Velde helped choreograph the dance for 'Our Home', a video showcasing some of the beautiful parts of Ōtepoti, in the hopes it would inspire people to reconnect with nature.
An Otago tauira is hoping a video she has made, featuring some of the most beautiful parts of Ōtepoti, will help people reconnect with nature.
Inese Velde recently completed her BSc in Environmental Management. She, with the help of fellow dancer and Pharmacy tauira Madison Gay, choreographed a dance that was filmed in four different spots – Doctors Point, Woodhaugh Gardens, Blackhead Quarry and Sutton Salt Lake Scenic Reserve.
“My goal with it is that it sparks some sort of emotion, maybe a realisation that [the viewer] has felt quite disconnected to the land. I’m really hoping that this video can help people feel that connection again,” Inese says.
“I really wanted to do a dance film, and then I was just thinking about what story would I like to tell? And I knew I wanted to combine my passion for dance and my passion for the environment.”
Inese grounded the performance, titled Our Home, in the Tauki ‘Ko au te taiao, ko te taiao ko au’, which translates directly to ‘I am nature and nature is me’.
Performing in nature was very different to performing on a stage, she says.
“It was really interesting dancing in the environment. You had to really work with it. You can’t just expect a flat floor. You’ve got bushes, you’ve got sand.
“You’re trying to figure out how to change choreography to connect with the environment. And I think that’s really cool.”
Each space they danced in generated a different feeling and emotion, she says.
“I would love to dance in nature all the time if I could.”
Inese has been dancing since she was four-years old, and has taken classes in jazz, contemporary dance, tap and ballet. Since arriving at Otago she says she has taken up hip hop, too: “I’ve got the whole range”.
She joined the Otago Dance Association, an OUSA affiliated club, during her first year. She has been a member since and is now the President of Otago Dance Association.
Our Home
Dancers performing at a few different scenic spots around Ōtepoti.
Inese was part of a different dance film last year, directed by Lokyee Szeto, and it inspired her to make her own. She put a call out for dancers to submit videos for the audition process, and all of the dancers in the video wound up being current or previous members from the Otago Dance Association.
Inese says she was trying to include a wide range of the various landscapes you can find around Ōtepoti.
“If you watch the video you can see the different colours and how the different landscapes are very distinct. So that was a huge reason why we chose those landscapes and I think it turned out really cool.
“It helps tell the story that our environment is very special. We have all these different areas that we have to look after and that we care for.”
Simon Waterhouse, of Resonate films in Ōtautahi, came to Ōtepoti to do the filming and editing of the video.
“Simon and I came up with how it was going to work, the idea of the story that we’re going to tell and we all worked together to create the dance film.”
The whole project took about two months, Inese says.
“We had rehearsals weekly for a few hours, and then we had one weekend where we were full-on filming.
“[Filming] was really cool. Everyone had such great vibes and I think we all just had a really good time.”
Inese says friends and family have praised the four-minute-long video, which was uploaded on YouTube on July 15.
She hopes to continue using dance as a medium to highlight the natural environment and encourage people to reconnect with nature.
-Kōrero by Koren Allpress, internal communications adviser
Study Environmental Management at Otago
If you’re curious about how the Earth works and how humans shape it, this major is for you. You’ll explore how science, policy, culture, and society, including socio-cultural and Indigenous perspectives, come together to tackle global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource pressures.
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