Marama Lloydd : Profile @ Arts Front

Marama Lloydd

She/her

Go To > PANNZ ARTS MARKET

Artist/Producer

Creative Producer @ Atamira Dance Company

Connect at :-

www.atamiradance.co.nz

Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland, New Zealand

Dance Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland Theatre

Marama Lloydd (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa) is currently the Kaiwhakaputa Auaha | Creative Producer of Atamira Dance Company stepping into a supporting role after co - leading the company as Executive Director of Atamira from June 2018 - January 2025.
Marama has been part of the Māori contemporary dance, and wider arts sector for a while now including being a dancer, costumier, secondary school dance teacher, arts manager, executive director and producer.

Her dance career began in training with Te Kanikani o Te Rangatahi in 1987 then she became an original company member of Taiao Dance Theatre, the company which pioneered the indigenous expression of the art form of Māori Contemporary Dance in Aotearoa.
Internationally Marama attended 3 residencies in the Aboriginal Arts Programme at the Banff Centre for the Arts in from 2000 - 2002.

Marama also brings a strong understanding of the wider dance industry and governance in the arts sector following 13 years on the board of the NZ Dance Festival Trust (Tempo Dance Festival) including serving as Chair from 2011 – 2016. She was a core member of the Auckland Arts Festival Programme Team from 2012-2018 as Education and Community Programme Manager.

In her time at Atamira Marama has produced and toured the company works Pango, Onēpu, Ngā Wai, Tomo, TOMO VR film, the legacy work Te Wheke which toured the USA in 2023 and Ka Mua Ka Muri.

Marama is a member of the First Nations Tri Nations Cohort, committed to serving and sustaining the artform of contemporary Māori dance in Aotearoa and the indigenous dance network globally.

Organisation/Company

Name: Atamira Dance Company

My Role: Creative Producer

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Atamira Dance Company is a leading force in Māori contemporary dance, a platform where te ao Māori and dance converge, and creativity brings mātauranga Māori, whakapapa, and stories to life. Over its 25-year history, Atamira has firmly established itself as a foundational pou, shaping and defining the landscape of Māori contemporary dance, with impacts that extend far beyond the stage. The company fosters artistic excellence, nurtures talent, and creates transformative experiences that resonate both nationally and globally. Atamira uplifts, inspires, and celebrates the richness of te ao Māori through its powerful performances, collaborations, and advocacy. It is also a dynamic community where tradition meets innovation, pushing boundaries and enriching Māori cultural identities and traditions of thought. Atamira honours mātauranga Māori through storytelling that connects celestial wisdom with earthly expression, elevating the cultural landscape both in Aotearoa and on the world stage.

Iwi affiliation

Ngāpuhi, Te Tahawai, Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa

Rohe

Tāmaki Makaurau born and bred but raised eating the sands and drinking the salt waters of the 90 mile beach in Ahipara

How I got where I am today

Dancer - Taiao Dance Theatre (1987-1991), Banff Centre for the Arts 2000 -2001
Fashion Designer - MARAMA, Moa Unlimited
Costumier - Taiao Dance Theatre, Dancing Earth, Atamira Dance Company
Dance Artist - Taiao Dance Theatre, Banff Centre for the Arts, Calgary, Governance - Tempo Dance Festival 2000-2018
Teacher - Waitakere College Curriculum Dance, junior te reo Māori
Arts Manager - Auckland Arts Festival Education and Community Programming
Executive Director - Atamira Dance Company 2018-2024
Creative Producer -Atamira Dance Company 2025

Whānau

My 2 Leo sons aged 32 and 30
My besties from way back with whom I have danced, played in bands, ran a fashion collective and raised our children
My close colleagues from the arts here and over there
My tupuna from here and around the world

What grounds me?

Yoga, tarot, astrology, gardening and keeping house.
Spending time in nature, with my cat and in Ahipara and Tai Tokerau with my ancestors.

Rongo Whakapā

Artform: Dance

Development Status: Tour Ready

Media Uploads

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Trailer

Full Length

If the full length video requires a password, you can contact the artist here.

Synopsis

Rongo Whakapā is the debut choreographic work by Brydie Colquhoun, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most captivating Māori contemporary dance artists, teachers, and practitioners.
In a time of increasing disconnection, we are invited into a shared, intimate space with encouragement to slow down and be fully present. Rongo Whakapā – meaning sense of touch – reflects this invitation as it examines the tension between individualism and collective community. While six dancers respond to each other and the shifting environment they co-create, audiences are invited to move freely, choose their point of view, and decide at what proximity they wish to engage
Atamira Dance Company is honoured to support Brydie with this significant milestone in the evolving landscape of Māori contemporary dance. Building the foundational shape of this work are conversations, interviews, and wānanga with Mātanga Mātauranga Māori, whānau, colleagues, and friends around intimacy and connection in our contemporary lives. Brydie’s extensive embodied knowledge and whakapapa of movement practice, drawing on contemporary dance technique, contact improvisation, durational improvisation, and score-based structures, also inform the language.
Supported with sound design by Eden Mulholland and spatial design by Rowan Pierce, an immersive world and shared experience is created. Rongo Whakapā gently explores shifts toward decolonising performance spaces, proposing new ways—or perhaps old ways—of gathering and witnessing.

Presentation:
Rongo Whakapā disrupts the usual theatre protocols, wanting audiences to have intimacy and autonomy as to how they view and interact with the performance. The oblong dark space, ‘in the round’ frames a grey flooring with six 90-degree 'talking' panels in greyish white tones, creating a mini maze of entrances and exits. The audience is able to interact with these panels as the dancers enter the space, then choose their position, able to move during the show and shift their perspectives. They can sit on seats or the floor, lean on walls or lie down. But there is a rigour and attention to spatial detail and choreographic structuring.

Wheako: Alongside a detailed pitch presentation which will include insight into both the innovative technical aspects of the show as well as supplementary video embellishing the kaupapa and meaning of the work, we can remount aspects of the work including the 6 set screens and 4-6 dancers to activate with excerpts from the show. Show duration is around 50-55 mins.

Rider pending within a few weeks

Creative Team and Crew

Kaitito Nekehanga | Choreographer – Brydie Colquhoun (Ngāpuhi)

Performers
Abbie Rogers (Kāi Tahu, Te Arawa)
Sean MacDonald (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa, Tūwharetoa, Rangitāne)
Caleb Heke (Ngāpuhi)
Jeremy Beck (Kāi Tahu)
Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Rangitāne)
Tai Taranui Hemana (Te Arawa)

Kaihoahoa I Set & Lighting Designer – Rowan Pierce
Kaitito | Sound Designer – Eden Mulholland (Ngāti Porou)

Kaiawhina | Advisor - Tūī Matira Ranapiri-Ransfield (Ngāti Ohomairangi)
Kaiawhina | Advisor - Mokonui-a-rangi Smith (Te Arawa, Tainui, Takitimu, Horouta)
Intimacy Coordinator | Advisor – Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi)
Development One Performer – Olivia McGregor (Muaūpoko, Ngāti Raukawa)
Secondment dancer (Unitec) – Tyler Wilson

Kaihautū - Bianca Hyslop (Te Arawa)
Kaiwhakaputa Auaha – Marama Lloydd (Ngāpuhi, Te Tahawai, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu)
Kaiwhakahaere – Ashley David
Kaiwhakahaere Tairanga, Kaiwhakahaere Ako – Abbie Rogers (Kāi Tahu, Te Arawa)

Brand – Osborne Shiwan
Photography – Osborne Shiwan, Shabnam Shiwan
Drone Photography / Videography – Petra Leary

Number of People in the Touring Party

9-12 = 6 dancers, 3 crew, Atamira Director, Producer and GM

Previous Seasons

Show Premiere 2025: Te Pou Theatre, Tamaki Makaurau July 11-13, 5 shows

Reviews and Quotes

"An alluring performance debut, sensing touch through sublime movement, symbolic structure and human connectivity."

We are witnessing complexities in this work, of production values, set and bodies in a scenic dance that is open to how we perceive the elements at play ........to arrive at a work of gentle strength and sublime improvised and set dancing

"Rongo Whakapā is a consensual play in dance that brings a world of wānanga, community, Mātauranga Māori, and discourse into the creative process. Bravo."
Theatreview, Claire O'Neil 12th July 2025

"Performed by six dancers in an open, fluid, and decolonised space at Te Pou Theatre, the piece explores the tension between individualism and collective community through movement, stillness, and shared presence."

"At times, I wasn’t sure whether I was witnessing a dance work or walking through an installation. And perhaps that blurring is intentional: Rongo Whakapā invites us not just to watch, but to feel, to shift, and to be present with others in quiet, embodied ways."
Lee Li, Craccum, 13 Jul 2025

Technical Rider & International Touring Info (if applicable)

View/download document #1 here