Taiaroa Royal is the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Early life and education

Royal identifies with the

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

and

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...

regions,

Ngāti Raukawa Ngāti Raukawa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Waikato, Taupo and Manawatu/Horowhenua regions of New Zealand. In 2006, 29,418 Māori registered their affiliation with Ngāti Raukawa. History Early history Ngāti Raukawa reco ...

, Uenukopako and Kāi Tahu of the South Island. As a teenager at age 15 he won a disco dancing competition in the Bay of Plenty. Royal is a graduate of the

New Zealand School of Dance The New Zealand School of Dance was established in 1967 and is a tertiary educational institute in New Zealand that teaches contemporary dance and ballet. It started as the National School of Ballet, and after contemporary dance was added in 198 ...

, finishing in 1984.

Career

Companies he has performed with as a dancer include the

Royal New Zealand Ballet The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company. History New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danish ...

, Douglas Wright Dance Company, Human Garden, Commotion Dance Company, Atamiria and

Black Grace Black Grace is one of New Zealand's leading contemporary dance companies. Founded by Neil Ieremia in 1995, Ieremia draws from his Samoan and New Zealand roots to create innovative dance works that reach across social, cultural and generational ...

, and he has toured to England, Europe, Australia and America. In 2007, he started the Okareka Dance Company with

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 ...

. Okareka's 2008 show ''Tama Ma'', premiered at 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 ...

, Auckland, won awards and went on to tour New Zealand. It had seasons at the Strut Festival,

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in November 2010 and The Powerhouse, Brisbane in March 2011. ''Tama Ma'' had autobiographical elements and was danced by Royal and Taane Mete. It included choreography by

Michael Parmenter Michael Earl Parmenter (born 1954) is a New Zealand choreographer, teacher and dancer of contemporary dance. Career Parmenter studied dance in the 1980s in New York and was influenced by both New York-based choreographer Erick Hawkins and Jap ...

and Douglas Wright. He has choreographed operas for

New Zealand Opera New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's only full-time professional opera company, formed in 2000 from the merger of companies in Auckland and Wellington (and later Christchurch). New Zealand Opera is headquartered in Parnell, Auckland, stages severa ...

. Some of his choreography is commercial such as music videos for Maree Sheehan, Evermore and

Ardijah ''Ardijah'' is a music group from Auckland, New Zealand that formed in 1979. History Ardijah formed in 1979 and spent the early part of the eighties playing the Auckland pub and club scene honing their skills as a covers band. They released t ...

, and event such as Christmas in the Park in Auckland. For the

World of Wearable Art World of WearableArt (WOW) is an internationally recognised design competition, attracting entries from more than 40 countries each year. The competition features wearable art entries, which are judged on durability, the safety and comfort of t ...

event in Wellington he has choreographed the South Pacific section. Royal has a teaching practice having taught at the New Zealand School of Dance and

Unitec Institute of Technology Unitec Institute of Technology (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka) is the largest institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. 16,844 students study programmes from certificate to postgraduate degree level (levels 1 to 9) across a range of ...

on the Bachelor of Performing Screen Arts. In the New Zealand Festival in 2020, he collaborated with American dance company Exhale to produce a work called ''Hōkioi me te Vwōhali From Spirit Eagles Land.''

Awards

* 2017 – Awarded a

Churchill Fellowship Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts (WCMT) are three independent but related living memorials to Sir Winston Churchill, based in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. They exist for the purpose of administering Churchill Fellowships, a ...

to travel to

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, to undertake choreographic research with Exhale Dance Tribe to start developing a united choreographic language and voice * 2010 – Te Waka Toi award - Te Tohu Toi Kē a Te Waka Toi, Making a Difference in Contemporary Dance. * 2010 – Tempo Dance Festival - Honouring a Dancer evening. * 2008 – ''Tama Ma -'' produced and danced by Royal and Taane Mete won four Tempo Dance Festival awards including ‘Spirit of the Festival’. It was also voted ‘Best Dance’ by Metro Magazine’s ‘Best In Auckland’, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal, Taiaroa Living people New Zealand dancers New Zealand choreographers New Zealand School of Dance alumni Te Arawa people Ngāti Raukawa people Ngāi Tahu people Year of birth missing (living people)