Making Movies

10th festival celebration

With 14 years' experience on World of Wearable Arts shows, choreographer Malia Johnston has the confidence to create contemporary dance that breaks the mould - and the show she's bringing to Tauranga is no exception.

Cudo (Latin for beat or forge) takes urban contemporary dance to a new level with sound and visuals that draw the audience into the minds of the beat makers and beat breakers.

Tap-dancing feet, for instance, see the dancers create and react to the live music, while manipulated real-time visuals allow the cast to expand on choreographic concepts and create a conversation between mediums.

Acrobatic, robotic and liquid hip-hop hybrid movement pushes the boundaries and delivers an exploration of the vast possibilities of how bodies move in space and time.

Cudo comes to Tauranga fresh from the Tempo Dance Festival in Auckland and features some of New Zealand's top urban and contemporary dancers including dancer- choreographer Matthew Moore and members of internationally acclaimed hip-hop crew Identity Dance Company. The Bradas team from Identity, including one of the three well- known Cesan brothers, last year won historic back-to-back gold medals at the Hip Hop International World championships.

A recipient of the Creative New Zealand Choreographic Fellowship in 2013, Malia has worked with a diverse range of performers and arts organisations and is artistic director for Movement of the Human company.

Involved with WOW from 2002, she was artistic director from 2007-14 and will be creative director for the 30th anniversary show next year. But Malia has always been keen to also be involved with pieces far from the glitz of the wearable art show and has collaborated on works ranging from Mana Wahine (distilling the essence of women into dance) to directing the creative element for the 2015 opening of the Pukeahau National War Memorial Park in Wellington.

A graduate of Unitec's dance course in Auckland, Malia began learning dance at age 12 ("quite late," she says), catching the bus for the 250km-plus roundtrip to Ashburton each week for lessons - by the time she was in Year 13 in Christchurch, she was running her own jazz dance school. She has worked extensively with Footnote Dance Theatre over the years and last year choreographed Billy Elliot, the debut production at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland.

Dance shows at Tauranga Arts Festival:
* Cudo, Saturday October 21
* The Creamery, Wednesday October 25
* Contrast (Footnote NZ Dance), Friday October 27
All at 7pm at Baycourt. Tickets from Baycourt or Ticketek. See www.taurangafestival.co.nz