Jack Gray is a New Zealand choreographer, researcher and teacher of contemporary

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

dance.

Background

Gray was born in 1977 in Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland, New Zealand. He affiliates to the Māori iwi Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Porou. He studied at Unitec completing the performing and screen arts bachelor's degree in 1998. Later in 2004 he did a diploma of computer graphic design at Natcoll Design Technology New Zealand. He lives and works in Auckland.

Career

Gray founded

Atamira Dance Company Atamira Dance Company is a Māori contemporary dance company in Aotearoa (New Zealand) based at the Corban Estate Arts Centre in Auckland. History In 2000, the company was founded from a vision of Jack Gray's for a collective of young Māori ...

with

Louise Potiki Bryant Louise Mary Potiki Bryant is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer and video artist. She has choreographed a number of award-winning performances, and is a founding member of Atamira Dance Company. She designs, produces and edits videos of perfor ...

in 2000. Gray also started his own dance company called Jack Gray Dance. Works created with this company include ''View From the Gods'' that was in the

Tempo Dance Festival Tempo Dance Festival is an annual pan-genre professional dance festival held in Auckland, New Zealand and is the 'longest standing annual dance event' of New Zealand, founded in 2003. History Tempo Dance Festival started in 2003 from an in ...

in 2006 and ''Tuawhenua'' which had a season at

BATS Theatre BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989. BATS Theatre has seen the development of many performing arts talents of New Zeala ...

in 2008 featuring dancers Shannon Mutu and Nancy Wijohn and a combination of electronic music with traditional Māori instruments performed by Charlotte90 and Alistair Fraser. In 2012 Gray choreographed ''Moko'' for the Atamira Dance Company. He was appointed artistic director of Atamira Dance Company in 2018 following on from Moss Paterson. In 2015 after five years of research Atamira presented ''Mitimiti'' created by Gray. It was performed in the round at Q Theatre in Auckland and brought in stories of other indigenous peoples alongside Māori including Australia, Guåhan (Guam), and the Kiowa People (Oklahoma). Gray has travelled for his work and research and has collaborated with other dancers in the United States, especially with

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

or indigenous focus, including: Dancing Earth Creations ( New Mexico), Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (Hawai‘i), University of California, Riverside and the University of California, Berkeley. ''Te Wheke'' is the new work for 2021 programmed in the

Kia Mau Festival The Kia Mau Festival, previously called Ahi Kaa Festival, is a biennial performing arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand. In te reo Māori, kia mau is "a call to stay - an invitation to join us". The festival covers Māori, Pasifika and in ...

in Wellington and ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland. It is the 21st birthday production for Atamira and in the creation includes dance practitioners Jack Gray, Sean MacDonald,

Taane Mete Taane Mete is a New Zealand dancer, choreographer and yoga teacher. Early life and education Mete affiliates with Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Koroki-Kahukura. He graduated with honours from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1988. In 2008 he ...

, Kelly Nash,

Dolina Wehipeihana Dolina Wehipeihana is a New Zealand Māori dancer, choreographer and theatre producer. She affiliates to Ngāti Raukawa and Ngati Tūkorehe iwi. Biography Cambridge, New Zealand is Wehipeihana's home town where she grew up. She went to Sacred H ...

, Gabrielle Thomas, Kura Te Ua, Bianca Hyslop and Louise Potiki Bryant.

Residencies and memberships

* Asian/Pacific/American Institute at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

- Spring 2016 - Artist-in-Residence * Toi Iho (a Māori trademark) - 2016 - membership

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Jack Living people New Zealand dancers New Zealand choreographers 1977 births People from Auckland Te Rarawa people Ngāpuhi people Ngāti Porou people Unitec Institute of Technology alumni