Paradise Rumour in performance Photo: Duncan Cole
Dance company Black Grace has just returned from a US tour where thousands of people watched their latest work, Paradise Rumour. The company performed in Portland, Laguna Beach and Chicago.
Black Grace has become one of Aotearoa’s most internationally successful performance groups. The company have been touring in the US regularly since a sold-out season at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2004, and have made it to Europe, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Australia, and New Caledonia.
Neil Ieremia Photo: Jinki Cambronero
For founder, artistic director and chief executive Neil Ieremia international touring has become a matter of survival. He says a month-long tour overseas is what financially enables Black Grace to tour back in New Zealand. The company has survived for a remarkable 29 years.
Yet, for Ieremia this doesn’t seem to mean toning down the message in his work. Paradise Rumour sees him still angry about racism directed towards Pacific Islanders in New Zealand and the stereotypes they endure.
The work - which received some strong reviews at the Tāmaki Makarau Auckland premiere in June - extends on Ieremia’s 2009 Gathering Clouds; a response to an economist’s discussion paper which suggested Pacific migrants were a “drain on the economy” and views he considered xenophobic, expressed in the media as a result.
Ieremia’s provocation for Paradise Rumour - following the government’s apology for the Dawn Raids - was “how far have we really come since then?”
Paradise Rumour will be performed by Black Grace at the Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch on 17 March and St James Theatre, Wellington on 22 March.
Ieremia and his team keep up a remarkable work rate - which doesn't look likely to abate this year.
Last year as well as premiering Paradise Rumour, there was work with Black Grace’s Company B for emerging dancers producing I Am a Renaissance, an ambitious collaboration with New Zealand Opera, (m)orpheus, and the latest installation of a giant kinetic artwork for public screens The Art of Black Grace.
Neil Ieremia joins Culture 101’s Mark Amery to chat and share his love of other Aotearoa artists.
He introduces us to the work of Faiumu Matthew Salapu aka Anonymouz (composer for Paradise Rumour), Leki Jackson-Bourke, Oli Mathiesen, Kura Te Ua (co-founder/director of Hawaiki TŪ) and Samson Setu (performer in (m)Orpheus).
