Black Grace dance company: Still brilliant after 30 years

Buckwheat (rear, in red) with Neil Ieremia, makes a flamboyant entrance at the Black Grace show. (Image: Jinki Cambronero)

Helen van Berkel

Sat, 29 Mar 2025

For the past 30 years, Black Grace has been bringing a Pacific Island and Māori perspective to the stage via dance. Last Saturday night, the dance group celebrated its three decades of redefining dance in New Zealand, creating and strengthening the stage for Pasifika artists – particularly men – in a show called This is Not a Retrospective. It opened with a big-screen video of previous Black Grace performances, paying homage to the eclectic collection of the ensemble's original 10 dancers when it was formed in 199...

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