A creative director and an exceptional choreographer Malia Johnston is curating an outstanding dance programme for the upcoming Wellington performing arts festival WHAT IF THE CITY WAS A THEATRE?
Malia Johnston is a powerhouse of creative talent. She has honed her skills as a creative director but she is also an exceptional choreographer. Over the past few years, she has been the artistic director and choreographer for World of Wearable Arts.
In 2016, she started her own dance company, Movement of The Human (MOTH), and has been working on pushing the boundaries of dance and advocate for the brilliance of New Zealand dance on the global stage.
A piece she has recently produced and choreographed is Tōrua. This piece draws inspiration from the multiple meanings of the word ‘Tōrua’. Malia and her dancers reflect on the ideas of ‘a shifting energy creating vibration’ and ‘changing to direction like the wind or a current’. The resulting movement is ephemeral and fluid and enhanced by non-traditional venues highlighting the dancers’ intense dynamism. Malia’s combination of the movements with architecture and unexpected locations around Wellington City creates an electric spectacle of dance and emotion.
Tōrua is one performance in the upcoming Wellington performing arts festival WHAT IF THE CITY WAS A THEATRE? Malia is currently collaborating on producing a dance programme for this festival with other local organisations. She is working with amazing creatives to reimagine the way that they can use public spaces as performance.
This creative collaboration is the first of its kind in a performing arts festival. Malia is collaborating and curating an outstanding dance programme with other notable organisations like Footnote, House of Sand, and Java Dance Theatre. This is a unique opportunity for the dance community of Wellington to make use of public space in a way that they have never done before. This reframing of public space is an exciting prospect for the dancers and they are creating spectacular performances like a ballet on scooters and duets on Wellington’s iconic Cable Car. Malia Johnston has been flexing her creative muscles to make this part of the programme spectacular and innovative in the way that she does best.
WHAT IF THE CITY WAS A THEATRE? Is a free city-wide event happening throughout Wellington
from the 5th February – 28th March 2021.
The Performance Arcade 2021 will be on Wellington Waterfront
between 18th February and 28th February.
