The Pacific Dance Festival is back for its fourth year.
The Pacific Dance Festival is back for its fourth year.
Pacific Dance Festival
Now in its fourth year, the annual Pacific Dance Festival steps up a beat. For the first time, opening night is in the heart of Auckland city – at the ASB Waterfront Theatre – followed by nearly a month's worth of performances, workshops, film screenings, free events and open rehearsals at venues across the region, all celebrating the range of Pacific dance. In Leeches, the opening night show, nine internationally acclaimed dancers explore what it means to be New Zealanders and Pasifika; in Moana, at the Mangere Arts Centre, upcoming performers show off their moves while Māui uses dance, music and theatre to re-tell the stories that have travelled throughout the Pacific for hundreds of years.
Pacific Dance Festival, various venues, until Sunday, June 23.
Alae is one of three Auckland bands playing at the city's newest live music venues, Anthology Lounge.
Three of Auckland's hottest up-and-coming bands unite for a one-off gig at K Road's newest live music venue, Anthology Lounge. Four-piece alt-rockers Alae, who last year released their debut album Henry St, lead the show. Inspired partly by Feist's The Reminder, Henry St is a gorgeous blend of folk, rock and pop, with an emotional aura the band describes as "melancholy with a side of optimism". They're joined by pop duo Foley, whose high-energy pop song have been garnering buzz, and George, a Mt Maunganui-based singer-songwriter whose extraordinary voice works magic with deftly constructed pop hooks.
Alae, Foley and George, Anthology Lounge, Saturday, June 8
Heat:
Back in 2008, we weren't really speaking as much as we should have been about climate change. Sure, Al Gore had released An Inconvenient Truth and word was spreading but global warming wasn't something making daily headlines. You could say then that local playwright Lynda Chanwai-Earle was ahead of her time with Heat about the complicated relationship of a young married couple – both scientists - hunkering down inside an isolated little hut, wintering over in the vast frozen Antarctic with nothing but sporadic radio contact and an ostracised penguin for company. A decade after its debut, Heat returns to Auckland and is well worth seeing especially if you like your theatre sustainable. The production team has pledged to use all recycled and self-sourced material for the set and props to maintain the "environmental sustainability" of the original show.
Heat, Basement Theatre, until Saturday, June 8
The Monkees in their "surprisingly subversive" 1960s' heyday.
The Monkees:
Here they come, walking down the street and onto the stage at the Town Hall. Yes, it's The Monkees and they're playing their one Auckland show this weekend. Surviving members Mike Nesmith and Mikey Dolenz perform all the group's classic hits backed by a top band filling in the spots. The group, who famously began on a surprisingly subversive TV comedy before deciding to become a real band, clocked up more than their fair share of iconic 60s hits, like I'm A Believer, Last Train to Clarkesville, Daydream Believer and Steppin' Stone to name just a few. After this tour they're reportedly calling it a day, so don't monkey around, get along to the show.
Thames artist Chris Mules' Fireflies has won this year's Waiheke Island Community Art Gallery's small sculpture prize.
Small Sculpture Prize Show:
Waiheke Island's usually a place associated with long summer days but don't let a little "weather" put you off taking a trip to our favourite Hauraki Gulf island. Rain or shine, the island is home to some wonderful galleries - and wineries with winter menus - including its community art gallery. This month, the gallery is showing work entered in New Zealand's only small sculpture prize, won by Thames artist Chris Mules. Mules' Fireflies, an installation resembling landscape, structures and people, was one of 70 entries received from all over the country and shortlisted to 32. Waiheke artists include Zephir Delamore, Christine Hafermalz-Wheeler, Russell Jackson, Luke Reynolds, Sally Smith
Small Sculpture Prize Show, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, until Sunday, June 23.
