Kahurangi in Kuala Lumpur 
The Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre will celebrate Waitangi Day in Kuala Lumpur, performing at the Malaysia-New Zealand Cultural Extravaganza. Founded by Tama Huata in 1983, Kahurangi has showcased the songs and dances of the Ngati Kahungunu people at arts festivals throughout NZ, Australia, the US, Canada and Asia. According to the Malaysian Star, the group "has been identified as one of a handful of globally important and innovative indigenous performing companies producing original work for young audiences." Some of Kahurangi's career highlights include performances at the Seattle International Children's Festival, Atlanta Olympics Arts Festival, Ottawa International Festival of the Arts and Australia's Moomba Festival in Melbourne. 
(26 January 2007)

 


Memorable moves
The Royal NZ Ballet’s performance of Javier Frutos’ Milagros made the Observer’s top ten dance moments of 2004. The piece toured the UK in May as part of an RNZB triple bill.
(2 January 2005)
 

Black Grace “a revelation”
The US debut of Black Grace was one of the New York Times’ dance highlights of 2004. Says reviewer Jennifer Dunning; “The audience was filled with Berkshires vacationers of all ages and degrees of dance sophistication. But the performing and choreography of Black Grace … needed no translation. The all male troupe of dancers of Maori and Pacific Island descent made gutsy use of their bodies and athletic energy. Nothing surprising about that. What was unusual was the unsentimental spirituality.”
(26 December 2004)

Cultural export
Boston Globe writer catches a performance from acclaimed NZ dance troupe, Black Grace, at their first European festival outing in the Netherlands. "Australia and NZ are among those enlightened nations that want the rest of the world to experience their culture, so they send it on tour, which is how I got to see Black Grace ... [The troupe] combines traditional Maori dance and song with a particularly athletic version of Western modern dance that has them slipping and sliding across the stage, often clapping or slapping themselves to provide their own accompaniment."
(11 January 2004)
 

Dancing from the ceiling 
"Start off by swinging from the chandeliers." Mark Baldwin has been appointed artistic director of the prestigious Rambert Dance Company. The Fijian-born Baldwin, who danced with Limbs Dance Company and New Zealand ballet before moving to London, performed with Britain's oldest dance company for nine years. He is already thumbing through his address book with a view to commissioning work from young composers, and noted that his dancers are "hungry, hungry, hungry" for original choreography.
(1 July 2002)

Hula hello
American Frances Price does Maori, Hawaiian and Tahitian dance. "The Polynesian dancers were a real hit at our wedding," said Diane Szymanski Dorcey who created a Hawaiian style wedding in Brighton last month. "We had everyone doing the hula from our grandmothers to grandchildren."
(8 November 2000)

Bloodlust ballet brings in the crowds in Australia
The Royal New Zealand Ballet's Dracula is slaying audiences across the Tasman. Described as "grand gothic entertainment layering gloom, psychological gutsiness and new eroticism over a hackneyed old plot" it has opened in Melbourne to A-Positive acclaim: Dracula is "taking Australian ballet back into the popular culture domain, a place it hasn't been in decades". 
(25 July 2000)

Cultural edge sees Kiwi flying high in De La Guarda  
Tanemahuta Gray, a dancer and Kapa Haka teacher, is flying through the air in the hot London aerial dance spectacular De La Guarda, a show that crosses the fringes of theatre, dance and circus.  Devised by an Argentinean group, all you will want to do after experiencing 'the sexiest experience of the theatrical century', is "indulge the primal urge to scream, howl and dance in the street.
(April 2000)

A vision in ribbons 
Auckland ballerina 16-year-old Hannah O'Neill — who recently won first prize at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland — is in her second year at the Australian Ballet School and "has a luminous quality that you just can't teach", according to competition judge Australian Ballet's artistic director, David McAllister. O'Neill describes herself as "tallish" at a slim 170 centimetres, with glistening black hair inherited from her Japanese mother and a smile widely described as gorgeous. She joined the school 12 months ago after winning an international competition in New York, moving from Auckland where her parents live with her two younger brothers. O'Neill has been studying dance since she was three when her mother took her to classes in Japan. "She is a huge talent," said the school's director, Marilyn Rowe. "She has physique, musicality, intelligence and beauty but is such a grounded girl." 
(11 February 2009)

Ode to the environment 
Auckland choreographer Lemi Ponifasio and his 24-member dance troupe MAU performed 'Requiem' at New York's Rose Theater as part of the city's Mostly Mozart Festival - the company's first ever US show. Commissioned by Peter Sellars for the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2006, 'Reqieum' explores threats to the environment. Samoan-born Ponifasio says he cultivated the MAU dancers for over a decade. "In Polynesian culture there is no such thing as a dancer or actor, everybody is expected and is taught to know those things," he said. "If I saw someone didn't go to dance school, it doesn't mean they don't know how to do those things. It's part of knowing about how to be a person in those places, to be a good citizen of those communities." Ponifasio and MAU performed 'Requiem' at the 2007 London International Festival of Theatre, returning to this year's Festival with 'Tempest'. 
(7 August 2008)

Weathering the storm
Rotorua-born and Ruatoria-raised political campaigner and artist Tame Iti has the leading role in a Europe-bound performance based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Iti will perform in Tempest II with the 15-member Mau Dance Company. The Dominion Post quoted choreographer Lemi Ponifasio as saying that Iti was a "really, really beautiful" performer. "His protest experience means he knows the audience and will be able to reach out and deliver. It gives him a platform to speak about what is happening in our own backyard and around the world." On his return from the four-week tour Iti takes up a position as host on an Auckland Maori radio station. 
(6 May 2008)

Kudos for Kahurangi 
The Kahurangi Maori Dancers made a big impression on natives of Penticton, British Columbia, this month. The dance group, which comprises graduates of NZ's Takitimu Performing Arts School, regularly tours North America, as well as NZ and Australia. They performed at Penticton's Cleland Theatre on November 24. 
(24 November 2006)

On the mark 
The Guardian hails the rise and rise of Mark Baldwin, Fijian-born NZ-raised artistic director of London's renowned Rambert Dance Company. After just three years in the job, Baldwin has significantly increased the Company's profile. Under his direction it has won six national awards and dramatically larger audiences, and is currently in the midst of a £9.5 million fundraising campaign for a new and improved base in London's South Bank. "Competition is very tough now," says Baldwin when asked about his bold directorial moves and innovative productions. "We have to give audiences a much clearer reason to come and see Rambert." Baldwin will soon take two months leave from Rambert to create a new work for the Royal NZ Ballet, of which he was a one-time member. The full length piece will be scripted by Whale Rider author Witi Ihimaera. 
(15 November 2005)

Dance floor Casanova
“Strapping Kiwi dancer,” Brendan Cole, has found UK tabloid immortality as the fiery star of hit BBC1 show Strictly Come Dancing. Cole won the first series with TV presenter partner Natasha Kaplinsky – with whom he was rumoured to have had an affair – and is hotly tipped to take the second with Casualty star Sarah Manners.
(20 November 2004)
 

Chinese tour for RNZB 
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is set for its first tour of China since 1985. The company has been invited to perform at the Shanghai International Arts Festival in November and will stage further performances in Beijing and Hangzhou. "Putting our dancers on such a prestigious international stage is a fantastic opportunity," said RNZB artistic director Gary Harris. "It puts us in the same league as some of the world's best dance companies who have also toured to China in recent times." The performance program will include Javier De Frutos's Banderillero and a new production of Cinderella. 
(29 March 2007)

Good things come in threes 
The Royal NZ Ballet's recent tour earned high praise in the Australian national media. The RNZB performed a trio of works by Christopher Hampson, Javier de Frutos and Michael Parmenter, collectively entitled Trinity. The Australian used words such as "unexpected," "serene," "athletic" and "transcendent" to describe the triple bill, while the ABC's Nigel Munro-Wallis gave Trinity a 5-star rating: "This highly innovative program of three works is not only visually and artistically stunning in it's scope, it also demonstrated yet again a point I have made on a number of occasions in relation to our own Queensland Ballet: namely that it is often with the smaller state companies (such as RNZB and QB) that we find many of our most versatile and talented dancers, simply because they must, of necessity, dance across a variety of styles." 
(August-September 2006)

Princes of darkness
Black Grace was invited to perform again at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival after being the surprise hit of the event last year. “Never before has this reviewer seen a group of male dancers who seemed so gentle yet breathtakingly virile,” raved Boston Globe correspondent Karen Campbell. “The NZ-based all-male troupe can rock the house with thundering stomps, macho body slaps in syncopated rhythms, and acrobatics that send the dancers crashing into one another. Yet they can just as convincingly sing in sweet three-part harmony, accompanying their vocals with gestures that softly curve and dip.” Artistic director Neil Ieremia admits to being “humbled” by the response his troupe has received from US audiences in an interview with the Boston Herald: “It's certainly a great honour for us to be invited back.”
(August 2005)
    

Edge awardees
NZ performers Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Ross McCormack were commended at the annual Helpmann Awards in Sydney, August 10. Rhodes was named Best Male Performer in an Opera for his lead role in the South Australian State Opera's production of Dead Man Walking, and McCormack won Best Male Dancer in a Ballet or Dance Work for his part in the Australian Dance Theatre production, Held. The Helpmann Awards were established by the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA) in 2001 to “recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence.”
(11 August 2004)
 

Pushing the boundaries
Dunedin born dancer/choreographer Carol Brown has won two major European awards; the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) Dream Time Award in the UK, and the Ludwig Forum International Art Prize for Innovation in Germany. Brown is renowned for her ground-breaking approach to her medium, which is typified by collaborations with artists of other media and a blurring of traditional dance boundaries. “I see theatre space as both a physical stage for the meeting of bodies and a site for the intersection of bodies of thought,” she says.
(June 2004)

Elegy in Utah
Chris Graves present's Douglas Wright's AIDS-lament, Elegy, in Salt Lake City.
(September 2000)

Dance arc
Dance film Arc features "virtuosic performances by the brilliant Douglas Wright".
(May 2000)

Glamorous ballet dancer wooed to the edges of the world by inspirational Kiwi
Ballet dancer Polly Benge went from a life of hip restaurants and competitive yoga to a hazardous cycling trip around India with Kiwi chef Tim Molena, 5 years her junior. She has no regrets as she writes in her book Tea for Two ... With No Cups. "She found herself drawn to the 24-year old, whose energy and enthusiasm captivated her ... 'What I'm sure of is that I'm glad I had the opportunity to alter my life'." 
(26 May 2000)

Inspired by wings 
New Zealand choreographer and Rambert Dance Company's artistic director Mark Baldwin is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth with The Comedy of Change, a new work inspired by Darwin's theory of the evolution to life. Fiji-born Baldwin wasn't completely new to Darwinian Theory, having studied a little biology at Auckland University. The films of bird behaviour used by avian scientist Nicky Clayton to illustrate her Cambridge lectures were a fertile source of imagery and humour for Baldwin. "I've been able to steal loads of movement from the birds," says Baldwin. In 2005, Baldwin won the TMA Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance, for the creation of Constant Speed and the high calibre of his artistic directorship of Rambert Dance Company. He has recently completed touring the highly acclaimed work Eternal Light. The Comedy of Change tours England September 16 through December 4.
(2 September 2009)

Educating through dance 
Atamira Dance Collective's production 'Ngai Tahu 32' has made its Australian debut, performing in Tasmania's premier arts festival — Ten Days on the Island 2009 — and is reviewed by Kylie Eastley, writing for Australian Stage Online: "This work engages the imagination and our own personal reflections of culture and history. Undulating between trauma and bliss, it effectively includes all elements of stage design and a collection of dance genres from ballroom to the Maori haka." 'Ngai Tahu 32' is choreographed by Maori artist Louise Potiki Bryant, who performs along with a cast of eight dancers. Established in 2000, Atamira Dance Collective has a strong focus on exploring and retelling traditional New Zealand stories and legends. 
(4 April 2009)

Contemporary navigation
Dancer and choreographer Jeremy Nelson's latest performance Sail, is inspired by his childhood in New Zealand; inspired by the sea, the Maori haka and rugby. Nelson performed Sail at New York's Danspace Project, and according to The New York Times review is as well made and tasteful as any dance. But what made it stand out was Nelson's trademark full-blown, surging movement and the vivid individuality of its five hard-dancing performers. The Danspace Project's website quotes The Village Voice: "… the choreography is opulent in texture. Now taut and keen-edged, now lush and fluid …" Jeremy Nelson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004. He trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance and went on to dance for Siobhan Davies and Second Stride Dance companies in London before moving to New York in 1984. 
(15 March 2008)

Familiar sights in Utah
25,000 International Rotary members were treated to a Polynesian luau at a Utah convention centre this month. The performance, which involved story, song and dance, was put on by Kaeo-born Dave Atkinson, chairman of the Marae Committee of the New Zealand American Society. "Everyone enjoys a luau, so we are kept very busy all year round," says Atkinson of his Utah-based group. The Marae Committee was founded in 1988 and entertains at festivals, art shows, church and school functions, corporate parties and family reunions throughout the Western US.
(13 December 2007)

Dance film tackles domestic drama 
Shona McCullagh's short film Break was a highlight of the Dance on Camera Festival at New York's Walter Reade Theatre, according to the New York Times. Set in rural NZ, Break "illustrates, with surprising subtlety, the breakdown of a family" and stands out from the frequently "gimmicky" nature of contemporary dance films. The 35th annual Dance on Camera Festival comprised 30 films from all over the world and screened from January 12-13. 
(3 January 2007)

Douglas Wright’s “poem of love, cruelty and death”

Heavenly creatures
The Royal NZ Ballet impresses critics with its first foray into Sydney. The Herald reviewer is particularly taken with the show’s titular piece, A Million Kisses to My Skin. “I suspect that the classicism of this work is the company's strength. The six women are strong and speedy on point, with extensions that reach up to the heavens; the three men produce occasional technical fireworks that charge up the quieter accomplishments of their dancing.”
(12 June 2005)
  

Good gut feeling
The Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre enthralled Boston audiences, according to the Village Voice. “From rapid finger flutters to haka warrior poses, thrusts, and vocal outbursts so strong you feel them in your gut, Tama Huata's troupe of six kept us riveted as they unfolded a Maori creation myth in a dozen sections.”
(20 September 2004)

Graceful entry
Black Grace made its highly anticipated US debut at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Boston, earning ecstatic reviews from the national press. New York Times: "This modern-dance company from NZ exceeded expectations in dance that was startlingly fresh and full of invention, humor and infectious exuberance [...] "Objects" is one of the most haunting evocations of cultural displacement that I have ever seen ... [Founder Neil Ieremia] has spread his artistic roots in several rich pasts and grown up and out into a sunlight of his own making." A second Times review describes the all-male Maori and Pacific Island group as “one of the most quietly exotic troupes ever to appear at [the festival.]" Executive director of Jacob’s Pillow, Ella Baff, invited Black Grace to perform after seeing their debut European performance at the Holland Dance Festival last year. “Their movement vocabulary is different from anyone else's,” she says. “In some pieces you can see Pacific influence, and a particularly fine fusion with Western modern dance … And I liked their attitude toward the audience - welcoming and inviting without being coy."
(8 August 2004)

Communication Arts Site of the Week
Wellington Saatchi and Saatchi win Site of the Week in prestigious design magazine Communication Arts for their website for choreographer Michael Parmenter's dance opera, Jerusalem.
(19 April 1999)
 

 



Jolly good fellow
New York-based dancer/choreographer Jeremy Nelson was named a Guggenheim Fellow for 2004 in April. The prestigious award is granted annually to scientists, scholars, and artists at the peak of their achievements. Nelson was born in NZ, trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance, and moved to New York to further his career in 1984. He has taught and performed in Spain, Germany, Chile, Venezuela, Japan, Belgium, Mexico, Cuba, Greece, Canada and England, and is currently a faculty member at Movement Research in New York.
(8 April 2004)