Ngai Tahu choreographer receives AMP People's Choice Scholarship

Ngai Tahu choreographer receives AMP People's Choice Scholarship

3 November 2014, 3:37PM
the pr shop

Image caption:  Tanemahuta Gray (Ngai Tahu).


Artistic director, choreographer and show producer, Tanemahuta Gray (Ngai Tahu) is the recipient of the AMP People’s Choice Scholarship, receiving $10,000.

By offering open applications for a Scholarship publically via the AMP Facebook page, the AMP People’s Choice Scholarship offers everyday Kiwis the opportunity to turn their passion and dreams into a reality. Fellow Facebook users can then read, share and vote for the person they feel deserves the $10,000 most.

Jeff Ruscoe, Chief Customer Officer at AMP says:  “Social media is such a great platform to engage with the millions of New Zealanders that use the internet, as they can see just how passionate people are about doing their thing.”

“With so many worthy and deserving people applying for an AMP People’s Choice Scholarship, we’ve given the casting vote back to the public - and there’s no doubt they’ve chosen a very worthy recipient in Tanemahuta Gray.”

Gray’s passion for dance started at age four when he went to his first kapa haka lesson, later enrolling in ballet classes as a six year old. The NZ School of Dance student went on to dance for an aerial theatre company internationally before returning to New Zealand with a bi-cultural aerial theatre show called “Maui”, which was seen by almost 80,000 New Zealanders. Other credits include being a guest choreographer on WOW – World of Wearable Art Awards.

The scholarship funding will be put towards creating his next show, called “Tiki Taane Mahuta” to present to Christchurch audiences next May, 2015.

Of the upcoming production, Gray says: “It combines a strong narrative with a dynamic fusion of Māori martial arts, contemporary dance, hip hop and aerial theatre to the music of Tiki Taane. The staging also utilises multi-media design by the WOW designers and uses many WOW dancers and crew.”

The aim is for the show to tour around New Zealand in 2016 and internationally in 2017 and onwards.

“I wanted to inspire the people of Christchurch and my Ngai Tahu iwi,” says Gray. “They’ve missed out on so many productions because their theatre venues were badly destroyed in the quakes.”

Jeff adds: “As well as helping people own their tomorrow and achieve their dreams and passions in life, the AMP People’s Choice Scholarship is also about giving the public the opportunity to have a say in where the funds go. This scholarship benefits the wider community, so we want the community to play a part in deciding where that benefit will lie.”

Gray won $10,000 in the AMP People’s Choice Scholarship by receiving the most votes on Facebook – nearly 32,000 votes were recorded across New Zealand for all People’s Choice applicants.

For more information, visit doyourthing.co.nz.

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