KEY POINTS:
Less than six hours before Black Grace opened their new show, Amata, at Auckland's SkyCity Theatre, the troupe were still ironing out some wrinkles.
An on-stage collision between two dancers saw groups huddle together, discussing the mishap, before directions were called out and the scene repeated.
While the dancers' nerves were palpable, choreographer and artistic director Neil Ieremia managed to remain cool and collected.
"I feel surprisingly calm," he said. "We've got a way to go as a company. It's a group of new people working in quite intense conditions, but I think it'll be fine."
The new work, from New Zealand's leading contemporary dance company, debuted last night as part of the Auckland Festival, AK07.
It is the first Black Grace production since the company's 2005 tour of America, during which Ieremia controversially fired the troupe's seven male dancers.
Meaning "to begin" in Samoan, Amata is a reflection of Ieremia's life journey over the past two years.
Although it features 12 female dancers, Ieremia said it was never his intention to form an all-female company. Auditioning dancers last May, he originally set out to find four men and two women. "I came back with 12 women - they were incredible. I took the best dancers." Amata runs until Sunday at SkyCity.
