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Lemi Ponifasio is a Samoan choreographer living in New Zealand. His company MAU is named after the Samoan independence movement - the word MAU means revolution. One of the most distinctive choreographers in the world today, Ponifasio is a fearless creative force whose work provokes attention and debate wherever it is experienced. The choreography is an extraordinary visceral kaleidoscope of ideas and influences that touch on the tensions and politics of race, tradition, mythology, urban consumerism and environmental awareness. A work of immense beauty, Requiem is created from Pacific rites of farewelling the dead, of remembrance, and of greeting the ancestors. The uncompromising and controversial work of Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio brings together Pacific traditions of rhetoric and dance, with contemporary, minimalist theatre to create a pilgrimage of hope, echoing the history of social negotiations in New Zealand and the South Pacific. Originally commissioned by Peter Sellars as part of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart, Requiem brings an overwhelming response to the visionary themes of Mozart's last years: magic and transformation, truth and reconciliation, and ceremony for the dead.