Modern dance gets a lift

The Black Grace Dance Company is the big new winner in the Creative New Zealand funding awards. For the first time the company has been offered annual funding of $321,000, which will include three new works to be presented in Auckland and a tour to Wellington.

The contemporary dance company, which was formed in 1995, is based in Auckland but is committed to touring its work to other centres. It joins the 26 other professional arts organisations receiving annual or three-year funding from Creative New Zealand.

Arts Board chair Murray Shaw says the board was delighted to be able to support Black Grace with annual funding, given the company's important contribution to contemporary dance in New Zealand and its unique Pacific voice.

The artistic director of Black Grace, Neil Ieremia, says the company is honoured and excited.

"This funding will help us fully realise our long-term artistic goals and vision," says Ieremia. "We are committed to the ongoing development of our artform, our audiences and our employees.

"One of the most rewarding things that this funding brings is greater job security for our dancers, who have helped build this company from the ground up."

Organisations financed by Creative New Zealand include regional orchestras and theatres, opera companies, experimental galleries, Maori arts organisations, and national advocacy and service organisations such as the Book Council, Artists' Alliance and Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.

Among grants totalling $5,404,125 were $466,500 to Downstage Theatre, $411,000 to the Christchurch Symphony and $235,000 to the Wellington Sinfonia.

A diverse range of activities and services were supported, including a national tour of a play in te reo Maori; two new orchestral overtures to be commissioned and premiered in Christchurch; a showcase of New Zealand literature at the London Book Fair; orchestral performances in Southland and Otago; a national tour of new New Zealand theatre for children; a Future of Auckland symposium at Artspace; experimental theatre and the Adam Chamber Music Summer School.