This weekend we want to go to...

Gordon Walters' work fills Auckland Art Gallery for the next four months.

Auckland Art Gallery: Gordon Walters is one of our foremost modern artists whose black and white koru paintings of the 1960s have deservedly earned the "iconic" tag. Now a major retrospective of his work, Gordon Walters: New Vision, opens at Auckland Art Gallery featuring more than 130 artworks and providing an in-depth look into the history of his development. It reveals the different art forms that fuelled his work and inspired the creation of his own unique visual language. Those original iconic black and white koru paintings are brought back together for the first time and shown alongside never-before-seen paintings, studies and notebooks. Gordon Walters: New Vision, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, opens Saturday — Sunday, November 4

The Last Dance, a new work by Choreography/Designer Corey Baker, is part of the Royal NZ Ballet's Dancing with Mozart programme. Photo/Stephen A'Court

Aotea Centre

: Great music inspires great dance as the Royal New Zealand Ballet proves when it combines Mozart with dances by two of the greatest choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries — Jiri Kylian and George Balanchine — together with a new commission from Birmingham-based Christchurch-born Corey Baker which took him, and dancer Madeleine Graham, all the way to Antarctica to craft.

Dancing with Mozart, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, tonight — Sunday, July 8

Jacob Dombroski in Big J Stylez, his one-man dance, music and theatre show. Photo/Philip Merry

And around the corner from the ASB Theatre, there's a multi-award-winning production which captures one young man's passions for acting, dance and music. Jacob Dombroski, aka Big J, grew up as a young Samoan/Māori who also happened to be born with Down Syndrome. His story highlights struggles he faces for being perceived as "different" and how the pain he experienced through bullying was flipped to create a call-out for acceptance and truth.

Big J Stylez, Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, until Saturday

From short film Mere, part of Brown Sugar Productions' film, Waru.

Pah Homestead

: Waru is one of the best New Zealand films of the 21st century. So far. An ambitious and powerful body of work, the film tells eight beautiful stories, each affected by the same harrowing event in the death of a child at the hands of his caregiver. This weekend, as part of the Matariki Festival, the Women of Waru Film Programme presents eight short films made by the Māori women who created Waru, to be screened at Pah Homestead. Curated by Wairoa Māoriland Film Festival founder Leo Koziol and Waru producer Kerry Warkia, the screening is in the AV Gallery and is free with gallery entry.

Pah Homestead, Sunday July 8, 1pm and 3pm

A scene from Maumahara Girlie. Photo/Nicole Semitara Hunt

The Basement Theatre:

The Matariki programme continues with two stunning theatrical works telling vastly different Māori stories. Upstairs in the Studio is Maumahara Girlie, a contemporary show adapted from artists Mya Morrison-Middleton's interactive script at Window Gallery last year. Described as a mixture of theatre, visual installation, myth and seminar, the show analyses the lives of Māori grappling with decolonisation and urbanisation. Meanwhile, downstairs in the main space, Te Waka Huia is a play inspired by the tragic Brynderwyn bus crash in 1963, offering a fictionalised tribute to those who lost their lives, and how the loss has been carried by generations since.

Basement Theatre, Until Saturday, 6:30pm (Maumahara Girlie) and 8pm (Te Waka Huia)

(See www.nzherald.co.nz for reviews)