Black Grace: Gathering Clouds

“It’s unabashedly virile, dangerous and terrifically exciting.”
The Ottawa Citizen, 2008

Fresh from a sell out tour to North America and Canada, including a season at the prestigious Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, internationally acclaimed dance company Black Grace presents Gathering Clouds, a brand new full-length work created by founder and Artistic Director Neil Ieremia, which promises to be “beautiful in its fury”.

After 13 years at the forefront of New Zealand dance, Black Grace is set to astound audiences again with Gathering Clouds, a response to controversial claims made by economist Greg Clydesdale in which he warns that Polynesians display “significant and enduring under achievement” – a problem he believes immigration is making worse.

“I have always believed in the spirit of the Long White Cloud that embraces everyone equally. But after reading these claims and reviewing passages of my personal journey, I realise the Long White Cloud has become dark in places and it feels like a storm is brewing.” – Neil Ieremia

Gathering Clouds debuts at the opening weekend of the 2009 Auckland Festival at The Civic, THE EDGE, before continuing to major centres around the North Island including Wellington, Manukau, Kerikeri and Hamilton.

From New York’s 42nd Street to our very own Land of the Long White Cloud, Black Grace will again fuse Pacific and contemporary dance in an extraordinary and dynamic form, the hallmark that has helped Black Grace become the world’s leading exponent of Pacific contemporary dance.

“… pulse-pushing, blood-stirring, and sweat dripping tours-de-force.”
Pasatiempo, The New Mexican, Santa Fe, 2008