Black Grace Dance Company's founder Neil Ieremia gives emerging dancers a chance to experience the big stage with Company B's I Am Renaissance performance.
Video / Supplied
A new groundbreaking choreography from Black Grace dance company founder Neil Ieremia is being celebrated as an opportunity for emerging dancers to experience a big stage production.
Company B - ‘I Am A Renaissance’, showing at Auckland’s Herald Theatre, is the result of an intensive-four-week rehearsal period bringing together 12 dancers with varying levels of experience and from diverse walks of life.
Young dancers of varying experience and all walks of life have have come together for the show. Photo / Dean Purcell
Alex Lamm started dancing as an activity after school and as a means to stay active and meet people. She found Company B a challenging but rewarding experience.
“As I got older dance became my way to express myself, process things and to grow, escape, and live,” she said.
“The biggest challenge was fitness and being able to push as hard as I can without letting myself give up. Also trusting myself as an artist that what I create and put out is valid.”
Neil Ieremia has broken new ground once again with I Am renaissance. Photo / Dean Purcell
She’s hoping Company B will lead her on a new pathway to make dance a career.
“This opportunity means everything to me,” Lamm said. “It’s been a crazy experience and I wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s giving me the opportunity to express myself creatively, push myself physically and depend on my own dance practice.”
Neil Ieremia wowed audiences last year with his fully-immersive experience, The Art of Black Grace 1/5 in which the audience were surrounded by a 360 degree screen for an extraordinary world of dance, art and music.
This year he is bringing new, raw talent to his audience to show the depth and range of dancers in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Through Company B and with the support of Auckland Live, our aim is to create a full experience and contribute positively to Aotearoa’s dance industry,” Ieremia said of the performance, “all the while working with a bunch of energetic young talents to produce a fantastic new work that we can all feel proud of.”
Ieremia hopes the opportunity will give the dancers a chance to pursue dance int he future. Photo / Dean Purcell
Along with dance, opportunities will also be offered in the areas of producing and production, learning alongside Black Grace management.
Company B – I Am A Renaissance is on for a limited season at the Herald Theatre.
