CO-FOUNDERS
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COLLABORATORS
Production: Julie Zhu, Madison Cronin, Zoë Nicholson
Dancers: Abigail Jones, Adam Naughton, Alexandra Lamm, Amber Liberté , Ariana Hond, Carla Harré , Celia Hext, Bella Wilson, Brittany Kohler, Emma Broad, Emma Cosgrave, Erin Meek, Gus Syben, Holly Finch, Jacob Reynolds, Jaz Yahel, Jess Crompton, Joanna Cook, Katie Shaw, Katrina Bastian, Kit Reilly, Miriam Eskilden, Natasha Kohler, Neža Jamnikar, Rose Tapsell, Raven Afoa-Purcell, Terry Morrison, Tūī Hofmann, Tyler Carney-Faleatua, Villa Junior Lemanu, Zoë Nicholson
Composers & Sound Designers: Boycrush, David Yates, Flo Wilson, Kit Reilly, Lucien Johnson, Mike Hodgson, Riyoon
AV & Lighting Designers: Anau Hazeldine, Nocturnal, Paul Bennett, Samuel Folkhard-Hodgson
Costume Designers: Ana Van-Schie, Lela Jacobs, Lisa McEwan, Zoë McNicholas
Photography & Videography: Jinki Cambronero, Ben O'Connor, Yin-Chi Lee, Joshua Faleatua
Events & Festivals & Spaces: Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Art Festival, Basement Theatre, Bright Nights Festival, Comet Space Project, EarthBeat Festival, Karangahape Rd First Thursdays, LUMA Southern Light Project, Monster Valley, New Zealand Dance Week, ONEONESIX, Splore, Shipwrecked Festival, TSB Festival of Lights, Tūrama Festival, Q Theatre
BELLA WILSON
Bella is an independent contemporary dancer, choreographer and teacher, currently based in London, UK. She has worked as both a dancer and choreographer on every significant project with Dance Plant Collective since its inception. Bella’s practice is diverse and is centred around her love for interdisciplinary collaboration, fostering socio-political discourse and building community. Her choreographic work has been presented in theatres, art galleries, digital platforms (live-stream performances and dance films), outdoor light festivals, music videos, fashion week shows, and motion capture video works. Bella has been an artist-in-residence at Studio One Toi Tū (NZ), Wellesley Studios (NZ), Lucy Guerin Inc. (AUS), & Impulstanz (AT). Her first full-length choreographic work ‘STRUCTURE’ featuring 16 dancers was supported by Creative New Zealand and the Peacocke Dance Trust. She has also performed for artists including Alexa Wilson (with Footnote NZ Dance), Zahra Killeen-Chance, Kit Reilly and Holly Finch. Bella regularly teaches professional level classes for Unitec Dance, IndepenDANCE and The New Zealand Dance Company. She is a contemporary dance graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance (2013) and Unitec Dance (2016), and completed her postgraduate Honours degree in Dance Studies at The University of Auckland in 2023. Her academic research investigated trauma-informed choreographic leadership. In 2022, Bella was awarded the Arts Foundation’s Springboard Award in recognition of her outstanding potential as an emerging artist. In 2023, she was supported by the Todd Trust, Peacocke Dance Trust and Dorothy Daniels Dance Foundation to attend the ATLAS choreographic programme at Impulstanz in Vienna, Austria.
ABOUT US
Brittany is a freelance dance artist and co-director of Dance Plant Collective. Brittany grew up choreographing living room performances with her twin sister Tash before beginning dance classes that took her through her school years. Now, she holds a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts (Contemporary Dance) from Unitec Institute of Technology (2016) and is a registered Dance Movement Therapist with the Dance Therapy Association of Australasia (2022). Brittany works predominantly with Dance Plant Collective, choreographing and performing full-length theatre works and site-specific works for events/festivals, as well as connecting with the community through class and workshop facilitation. Choreographic highlights include her latest full-length duet with Natasha Kohler, Rituals of Similarity, which premiered in Auckland through Q Theatre's MATCHBOX programme, and her first full-length work 'Magnificent Remains', which premiered at LOT23 in Auckland, 2021. Her performance highlights include Rituals of Similarity, Bella Wilson and Dance Plant Collective's STRUCTURE, Love, Instantly by Neža Jamnikar at Experimental Dance Week Aotearoa 2020, and festival and live event performances over the years such as Light Night for Auckland Arts Festival 2023, Lite Moves for LUMA Festival 2019, and presenting work at Splore Festival.
BRITTANY KOHLER
JAZ YAHEL
Jaz is a contemporary dancer and creator based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand). She trained in contemporary dance at Unitec, graduating with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts in 2016. After graduating, Jaz became a member of Dance Plant Collective and since then has performed and toured with Dance Plant at a wide variety of festivals, workshops and shows all over New Zealand. Jaz’s choreographic interests lie in creating immersive worlds of absurdity. She has an interest in exploring how bodies and objects can move together to confuse the eye. Jaz is passionate about working with young people in the community and has worked in the not-for-profit sector, coordinating movement workshops for young people. Jaz’s focus for the last few years have been centred around this role and has recently performed with DPC in ‘Light Night’ as part of Auckland Arts Festival.
NATASHA KOHLER
Natasha is an independent contemporary dancer & choreographer based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand). She began as a co-founder of Dance Plant Collective following her contemporary dance degree (Unitec Dance) in 2016 and has been passionate about working collaboratively within both performance and choreographic roles, among others within the collective since. Natasha is interested in multi-disciplinary dance investigation and is passionate about using movement as a tool for inspiring growth, self discovery & reflection and to initiate positive change in our current world climate. Natasha loves collaboration. Whether that be with like-minded humans or with the natural world around us. Her current fascination is exploring how we can move in alignment with the natural world not only in dance but also in the mundanity of our daily lives. Natasha has had her choreographic and performance work presented within New Zealand and abroad and premiered her most recent work, a dance duet 'Rituals of Similarity' with her twin sister Brittany at Q Theatre's Matchbox Season in August 2023.
TŪĪ HOFMANN
Tūī is a movement practitioner and choreographer hailing from the northland region of New Zealand. She obtained her BPSA degree in Contemporary Dance in 2016 and has been actively exploring various movement modalities ever since. Tūī has a distinct interest in creating site-specific performance works, taking performances out of traditional theater settings, and integrating with other art forms to produce innovative and captivating performance-based artwork. Some of her most notable performances include "Social Distant Dancing" at the Lunga Arts Festival in Iceland in 2020 which was performed inside an abandoned silo, her participation in the Luma Festival in Queenstown from 2019 to 2021, and her work "Adrift" at the Shipwrecked Festival in 2021, involving a floating stage on a lake. Tūī's arts practice has been enriched by her time spent living in Berlin, Germany, and London, UK, where she has been exposed to new ways of working and has had the opportunity to expand her creative influences. One of her significant accomplishments includes choreographing a full-length work titled "MEAT" for Dance Plant, which received support from Creative New Zealand. The piece toured both New Zealand and Melbourne and was awarded the Best Dance accolade at the Dunedin Fringe Festival. Tūī has been an integral part of DPC since its inception in 2016. She continues to thrive in this collaborative and supportive collective, which allows her to explore her artistry further and contribute to the growth of the group.