Find out what’s happening in New Zealand dance news!
The Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts is proud to announce Gloria as a signature event for the 2026 programme – a landmark trans-Tasman collaboration honouring one of New Zealand’s most revered choreographers, the late Douglas Wright.
Presented by The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC) and Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia, Gloria restages Wright’s iconic masterpiece, first seen at the Festival in 1992, alongside two bold new works. Returning as part of the Festival’s 40th anniversary celebrations in 2026, this event pays tribute to one of Wright’s seminal works, while embracing the future of contemporary dance. Set to Vivaldi’s famous score, performed live by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Voices New Zealand conducted by Dr Joseph Nolan, Gloria is a breathtaking celebration of life.
The triple bill programme also features A Moving Portrait, a new work by Co3’s Founding Artistic Director Raewyn Hill; and Lament, a moving reflection on resilience and memory from NZDC Artistic Director Moss Patterson.
Together, these works honour the whakapapa of contemporary dance in Aotearoa while forging fresh creative pathways across the Tasman. Festival Co-Director Tama Waipara says, “to bring together a new generation of dancers from these two companies to embody Douglas’ magical choreography, means the power of Douglas Wright’s work lives on. To see Gloria reimagined alongside brand-new works by Moss Patterson and Raewyn Hill is to experience both the legacy and future of contemporary dance in Aotearoa.”
For tickets, visit www.festival.nz/events/all/gloria.
The Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) will open its 20th anniversary season with a new Macbeth, created by internationally acclaimed choreographer Alice Topp. “Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, exploring themes as current today as they were when first written,” says Topp. “An epic story fuelled by political ambition, passion, desire for power and the burden of guilt, its potency endures. Our Macbeth is set in a hierarchy-hungry, high-society city, where political storms, media frenzy and personal ambition collide.”
A co-production with West Australian Ballet, Macbeth will premiere as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington and Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival, before touring to Christchurch and Dunedin. Presented in association with Avis, this ambitious new work places Shakespeare’s iconic story of ambition, power and moral collapse into a volatile modern world shaped by political manoeuvring and relentless media scrutiny.
Award-winning designer Jon Buswell, a long-time RNZB collaborator, will create both set and lighting for the production. Costumes are by Sydney-based designer Aleisa Jelbart, known for her bold contemporary designs across ballet, opera and theatre. Macbeth will also feature a newly commissioned contemporary score by composer Christohper Gordon, performed with a live string ensemble from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Artistic Director Ty King-Wall says the new production showcases the RNZB at its most daring and expansive. “Macbeth is the Royal New Zealand Ballet as you’ve never seen us before,” says King-Wall. “Alice is bringing a world of bloodshed, betrayal and intrigue to our stages, in a cutting-edge production which draws upon the versatility of our dancers, the skill of our technical team, and demonstrates our incredible artistic range as a company.”
2026 tour dates include: Wellington, St James Theatre (25 – 28 February); Auckland, Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre (4 – 7 March); Dunedin, The Regent (13 – 14 March); and Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal (18 – 21 March). For tickets, click here.
By Laura Di Orio of Dance Informa.
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