Pacific Dance in Aotearoa - A Tale of the Past 20 Years
By Aaron Taouma
Twenty-years ago, coming out of developments of the late 1980s, Aotearoa was in a wave of rising creative talent emanating from a new generation of Pacific Islands (PI) creatives - young, energetic and representative of a PI-Generation-X (a generation of Pacific Islanders grown in Aotearoa between the 60s and 80s).
A wave of consciousness was sweeping through our communities of the time and was reflected in the development of film and television, performance and visual art, education and sport – Pasifika Festival, Pacific Theatre, Pacific Underground, Tala Pacifica Productions, the exponential growth of Polyfest and the beginnings of MAU and Black Grace dance companies.
Pasifika was moving out of an inwardly looking heritage paradigm into a world conscious mainstream paradigm and was at last beginning to be recognised as an integral part of the New Zealand psyche and scene.
Modern and contemporary dance has been able to pave a certain distinctly Pacific path and form within the theatre dance world.
Read the full article (Iss. 34) Pacific Dance in Aotearoa