Giving the World Our Best at Expo
2 July 2010: New Zealand’s National Day at the Shanghai World Expo will feature some of the country’s most exciting
young artists.
Performances by the brilliant young Wellington-born soprano Aivale Cole, the Footnote dance company, Moana Maniapoto and
Tribe and the NZTrio will be featured at the Shanghai Expo Centre on 9 July – the day New Zealand is given centre stage
at the expo.
Aivale Cole is the winner of numerous awards and won last year’s Lexus Song Quest. She is already establishing an
international reputation and is acknowledged as one of the most exciting singers New Zealand has ever produced.
The Footnote Dance Company, under the directorship of dance icon Dierdre Tarrant, are a group of contemporary dancers,
based in Wellington.
Footnote will perform Purlieu, especially commissioned for the expo and choreographed by Malia Johnston, to music
composed by Eden Mulholland. The work explores the preciousness and precariousness of small spaces – a theme very
relevant to the expo’s theme of “Better Cities – Better Life.”
Vocalist and lyricist Moana Maniapoto and her group have been one of the most successful indigenous bands to emerge from
Aotearoa New Zealand. The band fuses traditional Maori dance elements with contemporary song, dance and kapa haka.
The chamber music group NZTrio, comprising pianst Sarah Watkins, violinist Justine Cormack and cellist Ashley Brown have
established a strong following in New Zealand and a wide reputation overseas. They will perform works by New Zealand
composers John Psathas (“Helix”) and Wayan Yudane (“Entering the Stream).
Event Director Dilys Grant said today New Zealand’s cultural performance programme for the National Day would present a
“positive and sophisticated contemporary image” of the country and its people.
“There will be three performances – the first around the official launch of New Zealand Day and two later in the day.
Dilys Grant says the 70-minute evening performance will be “ an emotional and visually strong work which will take the
viewer on a journey through song, voice, image film and dance.”
ENDS