At an Oi Dance Workshop at the University of Otago physical education school on Saturday, Ms Potiki-Bryant shared her thoughts about Maori performance art or whare tapere with a group of 11 dancers.
The group started with a warm-up based on the male and female - hineruhi (light) and tanerore (heat) - of Maori dance and in the afternoon took part in a choreography workshop.
Ms Potiki-Bryant said the concepts came out of a collaboration with researcher Charles Te Ahukaramu Royal about whare tapere and drew on contemporary dance concepts.
"The only way we can do it is to create new forms of dance as the old ways are lost; developing a new dance form based on what we know of really old dance forms, pre-haka."
There were many other Maori dance forms than those easily recognised today such as kapa haka, she said.
"It's exciting. I'm learning a lot through it."
