Sean MacDonald
SEAN MACDONALD (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Raukawa, Tūwharetoa) Sean has been a part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s contemporary dance landscape for over 30 years as a performer, a choreographer and a teacher. He has worked with most of her dance makers over that time. After training in both Auckland and Wellington his first professional engagement in 1995 was for Douglas Wright in his groundbreaking work “Forever” for the Sydney Arts Festival. That same year he was a founding member of Black Grace Dance Company and continued his collaboration for 23 years performing both nationally and internationally. Highlights include many tours of North America with seasons in New York City, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, tours through The Netherlands and Germany and performances in South Korea, Mexico, Japan and Australia. He worked further with Douglas Wright in his works “Buried Venus”, “Inland” and in 2018 Douglas made one last work, a solo for Sean titled “M_nod” commissioned by Michael Lett. Since 2006 Sean has worked with Atamira Dance Company. Most recently he performed in the company’s seminal work “Te Wheke” throughout the United States and in “Tomo” by Gaby Thomas where he fell in love again with this beautiful art form. The last few years have also seen him appear with Borderline Arts Ensemble, Malia Johnston’s “Movement of the Human(M.O.T.H), Michael Parmenter’s “OrphEus” with the New Zealand Dance Company, Tupua Tigafua’s work “Shel We” in Sweden and in Eddie Elliot’s “Waiwhakaata, Reflections in the Water”. 2022 saw him appear with Co3 Dance Company for the first time performing in the remount of Douglas Wright’s “Gloria”. Sean choreographed some early short works for Black Grace Dance Company, “Kaleidoscope” and “Matariki for Tamariki” for the New Zealand Dance Company and in 2021 for Atamira Dance Company he made his full evening work “Nga Wai” drawn from his Ngāti Kahungunu/Rangitāne whakapapa/ancestry. One month ago Sean was awarded a NZ Arts Foundation Arts Laureate for his services to dance.
