Lion-sized imagination makes for creative kids' theatre

The Perfect Gift is a comedy show about the power of imagination designed with young audiences in mind.

Justin Haiu has toured internationally with Disney's production of The Lion King, made it to the finals of TV talent show So You Think You Can Dance and appeared at street theatre festivals around the world with The White Face Crew.

But the talented dancer and choreographer says it's unlikely any of it would have happened without the times when he and his brother, growing up in Whangarei, had to "go outside and play". Now Haiu wants to make shows for kids and families which inspire youngsters to use their imaginations and be more creative.

Tying in with the second week of the school holidays, his show The Perfect Gift opens at the Herald Theatre. It draws from Haiu's own early life where he and his brother were raised by their mum: "We didn't have too much but it didn't really matter because we were good at using our imaginations and making do with what we had."

The Perfect Gift tells the story of three brothers who, with just 30 cents in their pyjama pockets, are determined to find the perfect gift for their mum. They transform into superheroes, take a ride on a flying carpet and fight a fire-breathing dragon, all to ensure their mum has the best birthday ever.

Given it runs as one of the earliest acts in this year's Comedy Festival, there's humour, too.

While he grew up in Whangarei, Haiu went to high school in Auckland and moved to Australia to train as a dancer. In 2005, he was at the Brent Street School of Performing Arts in Sydney preparing for a dance exam.

Practising his pirouettes in a corridor, he wasn't aware of anyone watching until someone tapped him on the shoulder. That someone was a casting agent from The Lion King inviting Haiu to come and audition. That afternoon. Haiu never did finish his formal training, instead spending two years touring Australia and China with the multi-million-dollar show.

He's been back in New Zealand for a few years now, working with choreographers like Michael Parmenter and The NZ Dance Company, making movement-based theatre with the likes of Red Leap, putting in occasional TV appearances and performing with The White Face Crew.

So, has appearing in multi-million-dollar productions like The Lion King made him want for a bigger production budget?

"No, what it's done is helped me to see how good theatre and a show can be and how you can have high production values but still make do with what's at hand," says Haiu. "All theatre is on a spectrum and no matter where you are, you try to make things as well as you can with what you've got.

"A show like Slava's Snow Show [it's been touring the world since 1993] started off humble and kept going and built from there."

Lowdown:
What: The Perfect Gift
Where & when: Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre; Wednesday — Saturday