May 18, 2011

CALLOUT FOR DANCERS:
Please feel free to pass on to your networks

Pacific Dance New Zealand in association with DANZ, Auckland Council and Creative New Zealand are calling for dancers to take part in the Auckland-based Pacific Dance Artist in Residence programme 2011.

This exciting eight-week dance residency is offered to an established New Zealand based dancer, dance choreographer or a director of Pacific Island descent with a proven track record of working in a community and or professional theatre context.

This year’s Pacific Dance Artist in Residence is Keneti Muaiava.

Keneti is a master dancer specialising in Samoan dance. He is the co-founder for Vision Cultural Movement; an organisation that specialises in the maintenance of Samoan heritage arts & culture in Aotearoa.

The residency programme runs between Saturday 4 June and Saturday 30 July 2011.

Keneti’s residency project is called‘Past, Present and Future’ and is centred around the teaching and development of three distinct Samoan dance styles whereby community dancers will have the opportunity to imbue themselves in the concepts and culture behind the movements while also exploring contextual elements making the dances both ‘authentic and relevant.’

This is a great opportunity for dancers from a variety of backgrounds to learn the Samoan dance styles of the Sasa, Fa’ataupati (slap dance) and ma’ulu’ulu (action dance) from a master teacher (tofuga) such as Keneti.

The residency will also allow for experimentation in the dance forms once the basic heritage form is learnt and will culminate in a final showing at the Metro Theatre on Saturday 30 July.

Dancers will partake in workshops for three days a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for three hours per day – after hours) but are not expected to have any prior knowledge of the dance forms, although this would help in the learning phases.

For registration and enquiries please email auckland@pacificdance.co.nz
or phone Filoi Vaila’au on 09 370 0487.

For further information you can also check out these websites:
www.pacificdance.co.nz | www.danz.org.nz | www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz