Wheels On Fire

- Sarah Catherall

When paraplegic dancer Rodney Bell thought about taking his work to remote areas that don’t usually fea­ture in national tours, there were two places he wanted to go: into prisons, and back home to Te Kuiti.

The solo show, Meremere, is a multi­ media performance about his life, inspired by the three years he spent homeless in San Francisco after his job with a dance company ended. The work, he says, is part of a journey to find his own voice through dance and his connection with his Māori culture.

On Friday night, in a hall in Te Kuiti, the 47­year­old will show another side of himself to the friends and whānau who have known him all his life. Since a motorcycle accident at the age of 19 left him paralysed from the waist down, Bell (Ngāti Maniapoto) has spent a fair amount of time wheeling around the streets of Te Kuiti.

His time representing New Zealand in wheelchair basketball and rugby made his friends and family proud, but many of his immediate whānau have never seen him dance.