Black Grace, the New Zealand based dance company, performed at Bovard Auditorium on Monday night as a part of the USC arts and humanities initiative Visions & Voices. In keeping with the initiative’s tradition, the event offered both a performance as well as an opportunity to reflect on the piece through a question and answer session.
As a dance company, Black Grace exemplifies New Zealand’s indigenous culture through the fusion of contemporary dance technique with both Māori and Pacific Islander influences.
According to Daria Yudacufski, Executive Director of USC Visions & Voices, the artistic initiative was created to expose USC students and the greater community to the arts and humanities because they act as a critical supplement to classroom learning.
“Experiences in the arts can be transformative, so this program was started with the intent of engaging students,” Yudacufski said. “All of the events that we present include some sort of interactive or reflective components because we don’t want our audiences to just have a passive experience with us.”
This event was Black Grace’s second dance performance at USC, as Yudacufski said they previously performed on campus in 2015. She also explained how the company’s evident zeal and passion, alongside their cultural significance, led to an invitation to return to USC.
“They are just this really wonderful, exhilarating company,” Yudacufski said. “They combine [different] traditional cultural influences in their work. The artistic director and choreographer is from New Zealand, he's of Samoan heritage, and he combines the Pacific Islander influences with contemporary dance.”
Yudacufski described that Black Grace mixes the elements of cultural traditions and storytelling to address modern societal issues in an engaging experience.
“Seeing them live, it's really an electrifying experience,” Yudacufski said. “They dance with this highly physical, energetic style that is really, really powerful. They also tie in a lot of other issues and ideas into their work. For example, one of the pieces that they presented last night, explored issues surrounding toxic masculinity, which was really powerful.”
Sitting in the crowd, Ashley Steed, adjunct lecturer at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, explained she attended the event because she loves to experience dance performance.
“I came to [see Black Grace] because I really love dance as a way of expression and I love dance as a way of telling stories and sharing culture,” Steed said. “The first piece I really loved because of its fusion of influences, especially the Pacific Islander influences and the way that the piece builds up to this frenetic energy that never let down.”
Yudacufski explained the main takeaway she hoped the audience would gain from the performance would be a sense of joy, along with exposure to other issues and ideas worldwide.
“One of my colleagues here at Visions & Voices made a comment that when the audience emerged from the theater after the performance was done [he said] he’s never seen such a happy crowd,” Yudacufski said. “Being able to be really moved and inspired by the work and feel exhilarated by that, I think is really what I wanted our audience to [feel].”