NZ’s freshest new performance group, The New Zealand Dance Company, is heading to the stage with its premiere season – Language of Living  – at Auckland’s ASB Theatre on 10 and 11 August.

The new company is setting out to change the way New Zealanders see dance by testing the boundaries of what dance can be and to share its power, beauty and humour with a broad audience. The first season seeks to display how dance is the most beautifully truthful language of living.

Dance legend Michael Parmenter joins Shona McCullagh, Sarah Foster-Sproull and Justin Haiu to showcase some of New Zealand’s finest dancers: Ursula Robb, Alex Leonhartsberger, Craig Bary (pictured here), Hannah Tasker-Poland, Tupua Tigafua and Lucy Lynch as artistic athletes in innovative and relevant choreography.

One work to look out for is Tenerezza,  put together by dance authority and out-gay Parmenter and danced by Justin Haiu and out-gay Bary. Make sure you get to the show and support your community.

The NZDC’s artistic director Shona McCullagh says, “Globally, dance is at a high point right now, which is really exciting.  Our mission is to unravel the current perception in New Zealand of contemporary dance being elitist and inaccessible. There’s no reason why it should be out of reach or irrelevant on the fringes. Sharing the power of dance is what we are really passionate about.”

The stage is set for the debut of the NZDC speaking with a new voice of New Zealand choreography and dancers’ powerful role in our world, our Language of Living.

Language of Living premieres at Auckland’s ASB Theatre on Friday 10 August at 7.30pm and plays again on Saturday 11 August at 7.30pm. Tickets are on sale now through www.buytickets.co.nz. You can also phone (09) 357 3355 to book.