Dream to Dance; Black Grace returns with 'The Next Wave'

Beyond the impacts of the skills the contributing artists to the kaupapa will gain, I hope Company B invigorates audiences and our community with the excitement of emerging performers taking the stage. Our industry has taken some big blows over the past few years, with funding struggles, institutional training losing their support, and the pandemic. We have lost some of our stepping stones and milestones as emerging artists, with the bridge between ‘recent graduates’ and ‘established artists’ being dismantled. Some smaller festivals, residency programs, and even the ability to intern with companies have become a luxury for the institutes that can afford it. Hence the impact of Company B and its hope of reestablishing gateways for emerging artists.

Can you tell us a bit about your background in dance and how this has influenced your approach to choreography?
I started dancing at a young age, starting with street dance before picking up tap, jazz, and more commercial styles. I fell deeply in love with Musical Theatre and the grandiose scale of those productions. The characters and clear storytelling in theatre enticed me as a way to escape the many challenges I faced with my identity when I was young. I gained my formal training at  Unitec in their Contemporary Dance course, graduating with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts in 2020. My training has a definite influence on the type of movement I generate. I love working with complex poly-rhythms and often treat choreographic structures like maths which stems from my Tap training. My gravitation toward fast-twitch and intensely speedy movement reflects my time with the Cesan brothers and Identity Dance Company. My love of physical theatre and character is my abstract attempt at “contemporary musical theatre”. But I truly look to my early dance training when shaping the foundations of my choreographic interests, ideologies, and world-building. My choreography is often centred around making accessibly themed and aesthetically palatable work for diverse audiences, to generate a wider following for contemporary dance in Aotearoa. 

We saw you recently produced & choreographed a production called, ‘The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave’ that is about to tour in October. What challenges did you face while creating this and how did you overcome them?

Earlier this year, I premiered my first full-length work, ‘The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave’. The project was successful and we have been gratefully supported to tour the work nationally and to Australia later this year. It was a major learning opportunity, sending me back into the same educationally abundant state that I felt at uni. With that came challenges, and the biggest being the lack of resources. This challenge is communally felt across the performing arts sector, with independents and companies alike facing funding shortages in comparison to their bold, innovative, and ambitious projects.

And this is where lies the challenge; a compromise of artistry for a more equitable evenly resourced project, or a risk of investment into full ambition where the fulfilled artistic outcome is at the focus. We had some extremely generous support with big shoutouts to Auckland Pride Festival and Wellesley Studios for their major contributions. Still, we operated at 18% of the total production costs funded. I had a phenomenal team of skilled, generous, and kind wahine around me who are the absolute reason this show not only left the ground but took flight.  Power-houses of contemporary dance Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer stood strongly beside me as collaborative choreographers and performers, and the diversely talented multi-faceted Abbie Rogers braced the projects from all sides as producer extraordinaire. To overcome these challenges of resources in the endeavour of full artistry, you have to build a collaborative team that deeply shares the same core drive when making.