About Footnote New Zealand Dance

Airu Matsuda is a New Zealand born Japanese artist and graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance and Ev & Bow Full time Dance Training Centre.

Airu’s interests as an artist lie in how he can continue to carry and uphold his own dance history and use it in his exploration of movement. Having started his dance training in breakdance, he enjoys exploring how this can instigate ideas and be shown through his movement research. Airu is driven by the love of sharing a space with other collaborators and learning and being inspired by what others have to offer in the space.

After Graduating from New Zealand School of Dance in 2021, Airu has had the privilege of working as a dancer with Threading Frames on two of their films, Close to Telling and Walk with me. He has also worked with Good Company Arts on their films Tiger (Silver Lotus) and Dragon with the later being presented live in Tokyo, Japan in 2024. Both of the films have gone on to winning awards around the world including Best Dance Film, Best VFX and Best Experimental Film.

In 2023, Airu joined Footnote New Zealand Dance where he has performed works around Aotearoa and Japan. He continues to discover and develop as an artist, being inspired by everyone around him.

Ella Williams is a professional dancer, born of Canadian, Trinidadian and Pakeha NZ descent currently working in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa.

She is interested in exploring different worlds through dance and using dance as a way to create space for thought and change. For her, dance is a form of connection with the community, a connection to the world through creating and performing as an act of liberation and a connection to ancestors and her history. 

Ella Williams works with companies such as Andanca, Java Dance Theatre, Movement of the Human and Manubrium Circus. She has also worked on projects with Homeground since 2019. She has performed in shows such as: Show do cafe for the Measina lab 2023, Fringe Festival 2024 and Hamilton arts festival 2025, Torua Festival of Colour, Te Komititianga, Auckland Live 2025, Movement Jazz at Circus in your square 2023 with Manubrium Circus Theatre. As well as  working with Java Dance Theatre since 2018 on Secrets in your streets, Back of the Cus, Creamery, Cheese, Treat, Chocolate and Home of the Gods. She has also created and performed a duo work Gates to Memory for Kia Mau Festival 2025.

Ella studied at New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD) during 2015 - 2017 and received both a Certificate in Dance and a Diploma in Dance. 

Sefa Tunupopo (he/they) is an artist of Samoan descent (Vaiala, Puipa'a) who centres movement and connection and is based in Wainuiomata, Aotearoa. He is a graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, and is currently an independent/freelance dancer, theatre maker, and co-director of Indigenous arts collective 'Shifting Centre'. Sefa's conviction in dance is synonymous with love and aspires to be able to create art with and for his intersecting communities.

Multidisciplinary movement artist Jareen Wee, has been dancing, choreographing and teaching in Australia, Aotearoa and Asia since graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2018.  

Her art often explores what it means to be human, embracing the natural rhythms of life and the healing potential of movement and expression. She loves collaborating with musicians, filmmakers, and other specialists to create meaningful connections and multisensorial experiences.

Most recently, Jareen has worked with Chunky Move, Melanie Lane, Luke George & Daniel Kok, and is making her own works alongside duo-partner Sebastian Geilings. 

She has also performed in works presented by Asia TOPA, Melbourne’s RISING festival, Stephanie Lake Company, Melbourne Fashion Festival, Lewis Major, Joe Paradise Lui, Inplay Projects, Freya List, Liz Lea, House of Sand, Malia Johnston, James O’Hara, Tempo Dance Festival, and World of Wearable Art. 

Jareen’s own works have received support and recognition from the New Zealand Fringe and Melbourne Fringe. Other credits include National Australia Bank (NAB) and City Of Melbourne campaigns, multiple dance films and music videos / live performances for artists including Motte, Bumpy, Hayden Calnin & Jessie Monk.

She is delighted to return to Pōneke to reconnect with Footnote and the community.

Trained in Ballet and Chinese Dance from a young age, Haruka’s formal introduction to contemporary dance began at School of the Arts Singapore. In 2018, she furthered her training in contemporary dance at the New Zealand School of Dance for 2 years. However she was unable to complete her final year at NZSD due to the COVID-19 pandemic
and returned to Singapore, where she joined T.H.E Dance Company from 2021 to 2025. 

During her time with the company, Haruka was an integral part of both repertory and original choreographies by Artistic Director Kuik Swee Boon, Resident Choreographer Kim Jae Duk, and guest choreographers such as Jos Baker and Dimo Kirilov Milev. She performed in works presented locally and internationally, touring with T.H.E to various festivals and theatres abroad.

Haruka is also the co-founder and co-choreographer of HRCY, a contemporary dance crew based in Singapore. HRCY has participated and placed in competitions both locally and internationally such as Super 24 (Singapore), World of Dance Summit (LA), GDCC (Tokyo) and SummerJam Showcase Competition (Da Nang) to name a few. 

Montell Nickel (he/they) is an artist of Samoan Descent based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. Studied at the New Zealand School of Dance and Currently works as an independent artist and theatre maker. Montell is a member of the Indigenous arts collective Shifting Centre, and his practice centres connection, storytelling, and creating work with and for his communities.

Sasha is a dance artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau who is interested in investigating anti-binary ways of making and existing. Since graduating from Unitec with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts majoring in Contemporary Dance in 2021, Sasha has worked on various projects as a dancer and collaborator including Daughters of Willow (2022-2023) with EKC Choreography, Retail Therapy (2023) with Brandon Ross, The Bloom (2024) with Jessie McCall, and Pageant Moon (2025) with Presley Ziogas. Recently, Sasha was fortunate to partake in the Satellites AAF Dance and Movement Residency 2026, alongside Lulu Qiu and Weichu Huang.

​Caleb Heke is a professional contemporary dance artist and choreographer of Ngāpuhi descent working in Aotearoa. He has completed his dance studies at Unitec, training from 2018 to 2020.

He explores the intersections of traditional heritage and innovative contemporary movement, integrating his study of ConTact C.A.R.E to bring an awareness of skeletal impact to his work. For him, dance is a visceral connection to the world—an act of empowerment through athletic, gravity-defying performance that connects to community, ancestors, and history. As Caleb notes, "Dance acts as a gateway to explore the unspoken. Through movement, I aim to challenge perceptions, connect deeply with the audience, and strip away the boundaries between the abstract and the physical."

​Caleb works with companies like Atamira Dance Company and Body Island. 

His performance credits include KAHA (2022) as choreographer/dancer, KIKO (2022), and The Monotone Era. In 2023, he toured internationally for Atamira’s legacy work Te Wheke, performing at New York's Joyce Theater. He later delivered a standout solo in Ka Mua Ka Muri for the 2024 Kia Mau Festival, performed in Rongo Whakapā (2025), and featured in Mythosoma for the 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

Millie Maden is a contemporary artist, performer and maker yielding from Boorloo/ Perth, Australia. Millie started her training at PCCC before moving to complete her studies at the New Zealand School of Dance in 2025. She has performed in works with collaborators and makers around Australia and New Zealand- making her professional debut with Co3 Contemporary Dance in their touring season of “GLORIA- A Triple Bill”.

Millie’s interest in dance lies in the complexities of the human mind and body. Millie enjoys the challenges that come with new developments, exploring new emotional experiences within dance and learning to channel that into the art we see on stage. She enjoys new experiences, ways of thinking, and the opportunity to challenge current beliefs on both movement and social issues/ politics. 

Born in Ōtepoti, Jeremy is an active freelance contemporary dancer, teacher and choreographer of Ngai Tahu and Pakeha descent. Following his training at the NZ School of Dance, Jeremy was a Footnote company dancer for two years, performing in various works including Just Bet-ween Us, 30 Forward, Now 2015, Transfer, Now 2016, and Lifeworld (in five parts) 2016.

Jeremy has danced across Aotearoa and Australia for multiple companies and independent choreographers including, World of WearableArt Awards Show (2015 to 2023), Muscle Mouth as movement support for Triumphs and Other Alternatives, creative devisor for System and performer for the premiere of As It Stands in the 2019 Auckland Arts Festival. Jeremy has worked alongside Atamira Dance Company in AWA When Two Rivers Collide 2016, PANGO 2018, NGĀ WAI by Sean McDonald 2020 and the development of Te Wheke. Also working with Movement of the Human, Dancenorth, TOHU Productions, Tupua Tigafua in Shel We? and the 2021 world premiere of Ciggy Butts in the Sand, and Footnote as a guest artist in The Clearing. Most recently Jeremy performed with The New Zealand Dance Company for Whenua, in the 2024 Holland Dance Festival and Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts.

Jeremy’s choreographic body of work includes Know One, a solo show presented in the 2018 Wellington Fringe Festival, two commissions for Footnote New Zealand Dance: This. as part of The Movement 2021 and A Floor, Some Thoughts and Us, a full-length work for the 2021 ChoreoCo Season and Somewhat Physical for the 2021 New Zealand School of Dance Graduation Season 2021.

Artists Hana Miller and Jacob Perkins are founders of RDYSTDY, a Pōneke based creative production studio with an international practice in making art for screens.

Working across the arts, branding, film + TV, RDYSTDY's recent projects include development of an original animated series with the BBC, collaboration on upcoming season of kids show Yo Gabba Gabba on Apple+, campaigns for NZ brands Deadly Ponies and Kowtow, and major new moving image work UNARCHIVAL with Te Papa Tongarewa.

Hana and Jacob have also collaborated on a number of choreographic pieces featuring significant AV design. Most recently this year, INNOCENCE, with Atlanta Eke, commissioned for the NGV Triennial in Melbourne, and THE BLOOM, with Jessie McCall for the Auckland Pride Festival.

Past projects include, Keir Choreographic Award winning BODY OF WORK with Atlanta Eke; QWERTY with Atlanta Eke at Tempo; short film SOURSWEET with Victoria Chiu, premiering at Dance (Lens) Festival in Melbourne; CENTRE FOR NEW GEOGRAPHY commissioned by Multicultural Arts Victoria with Victoria Chiu, Raina Petersen, Katina Olsen, Kristina Chan and Nebahat Erpolat; THE UNSETTLING with Atlanta Eke and Ghenoa Gela for The National at Carriageworks, Sydney; GENETRIX with Victoria Chiu, Rudi van der Merwe, and Joszef Trefeli.

RDYSTDY has mounted installations and performances at Tempo, NGV, Carriageworks, Frame Festival, MONA, Dark Mofo, SPLORE, Buxton Contemporary, ACCA, NExT Lab Melbourne School of Design, Dance Massive, WAG, Adelaide International Arts Festival, Abbotsford Convent, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Les Plateaux in Paris and Coil Festival in NYC. You can see more of their work at www.rdystdy.com

Benny Jennings is a Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington based sound designer, composer and field recordist working across film, theatre, dance and VR. Benny is a graduate of Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music Sonic Art program, and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Music (Sound Design).

Benny was Co-creator and Composer for the circus/performance art show Loops, where he performed the soundtrack live on a collection of tape machines and synthesisers. Loops earned the Grand Design award and the Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready award at the NZ Fringe Festival 2022, as well as earning him a nomination for Sound Designer of The Year in the 2022 Wellington Theatre Awards.

HIs first work in contemporary dance was with Choreographer Jeremy Beck for ChoreoCo 2021: A Floor, Some Thoughts, and Us. He has continued his collaborative relationship with Beck creating sound design for Modern God and another unreleased work.  He has also worked with the choreographers Xiao Chao Wen and Xin Ji on Made In Them, part of The NZ Dance Company’s double bill Stage of Being.

Benny creates  music under the pseudonym Hominid, self releasing his Debut EP Introvert//Extrovert on the 27th of may 2024. Heavily influenced by UK IDM, Electronica and Deep House, HOMINID is embodied by flourishing textures, scrambled tape loops, four on the floor kicks, found sound and field recordings.

He has primarily worked in film post-production sound, most notably as Assistant Sound Designer in the Oscar nominated post-production sound team for Avatar: The Way Of Water and its yet to be released sequel. Benny was also the Sound Designer on award winning VR film Minimum Mass directed by Raqi Syed & Arieto Echevarria.

Gabrielle is a costume designer with more than 20 years of experience in the film, television and theatre industries. She has worked on many internationally acclaimed productions including The Luminaries, Ghost in the Shell, Mortal Engines and The Hobbit. She designed for the award-winning television show Reservoir Hill and has been nominated for best costume design at The New Zealand Film and Television Awards. She is also the costume designer for the dancers and performers in the World of Wearable Art Awards Show.

https://gabriellestevenson.com/

Tony Black (He/They) is a Lighting Designer, operator, and excitable dancer currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau. As a designer and technician he has worked for the past thirteen years primarily in Wellington, New Zealand, occasionally touring about New Zealand, and to south east Asia.

Turning from Theatre to Dance and Music in the past few years, Tony was been the lighting designer for Footnote Dance Company’s Choreoco in 2020 and 2021, and the Lighting Designer + Dancer in New Dance Group, and Dance, Danced, Dancing 2021 and 2024.

Winner of the notably leg shaped Most Promising Newcomer award in the Wellington Fringe Festival 2016, and going on to work for award winning productions as technical operator including Pakaru by Mitch Tawhi Thomas in 2019, and Soliloquy in Sweat by Katrina Bastian in 2021. Tony Brings a reserved, and gentle energy to productions, with a focus towards uplifting the stories of others.

Jessie McCall is a queer movement artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her work harnesses visual design, sound, object, and distinct movement vocabularies to build darkly humorous worlds that are slippery, disruptive, and human.

Jessie has an extensive independent choreographic practice, alongside work with Touch Compass, Footnote New Zealand Dance , Auckland Arts Festival, SPLORE Festival, Auckland Pride Festival, and Performance Space Sydney. She is the co-founder of the choreographic & performance collaboration SOFT. Co, with Rose Philpott.

Jessie’s practice seeks the disruptions of the queer lens as a generative ‘glitch’ in our collective ways of being, and embraces low-culture as a vehicle of the transcendent.

Meg Rollandi performance designer and artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. She is Senior Lecturer and Spatial Design Subject Lead at Toi Rauwhārangi, Massey University. Her creative practice engages interdisciplinary and collaborative, design-led devising processes and intermedial performance. Meg’s work has toured to internationally and across New Zealand. In 2024, Gravity & Grace (ANZFA and AAF 2024) was awarded Gold at the Designer’s Institute NZ Best Awards which Meg was the performance designer of. Recently, she has been awarded set designer of the year at the Wellington Theatre Awards 2024 (Gravity and Grace) and 2025 (The Sound Inside) and was selected as a finalist for performance design at World Stage Design Sharjah 2025. Other highlights include design for Working on My Night Moves (Total Theatre Award, Edinburgh Fringe 2019), London premiere at The Yard’s Now 20 Festival and Rising Melbourne 2022 and curation of the New Zealand Countries and Regions exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial 2023.

Thomas Lambert is a music-producer, composer and sound-designer. He performs and releases music under the name Thomas Arbor and loosely steers the adventurous music collective, Sonorous Circle. He has worked regularly in Sound Design for Theatre since 2012, including with Lemi Ponifasio's MAU Company and Wairea Company, working with the NZSO and Tame Iti. In 2025 he was awarded Sound Designer of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards for his work on The Sound Inside, directed by Stella Reid.

Samara Te Aniwa Reweti (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Uenukukopako, Ngāti Rangiteaorere) is a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher based in Tauranga Moana.

Samara has 15+ years of experience in street-styles of dance, spending two of those years training in Los Angeles, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Since graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2021, Samara has gone on to work with dance companies and choreographers across Aotearoa, alongside developing her own choreographic practice.

Samara was the 2022 recipient of the Eileen May Norris Dance Award, and one of the selected artists for the 2023 DanceWEB Scholarship Programme in Vienna, Austria. In 2024, Samara completed her diploma in Te Tohu Paetahi, a full-immersion te reo Māori course at The University of Waikato.

GENERAL MANAGER

Louise Jakeway is a seasoned arts manager with a career spanning multiple  practices of live performance art, film and television. After graduating from Allen Hall Theatre Studies programme at Otago University, Louise has since worked extensively both in Aotearoa and in the United Kingdom, most recently for Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. 

Louise is thrilled to have joined the Footnote team and is delighted to be returning to the dance industry where her passion for the arts began. 

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Anita Hunziker is the Artistic Director of Footnote New Zealand Dance, where she is dedicated to supporting the vision and growth of Aotearoa’s dancers and choreographers. Anita is passionate about working with artists to create transformative performances through bold collaborations, fostering creativity and celebrating diverse dance artists.

Previously, Anita worked with Dance North in Australia as a performer and educator and has also been deeply involved with the World of WearableArt Awards show in various capacities. Anita began her career performing with Footnote New Zealand Dance, after graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2004.

COMMUNICATIONS & OPERATIONS MANAGER

Brynne is an arts manager, designer, and producer who has been working in the Wellington arts community since graduating Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 2016. She has worked with a variety of arts organisations in this time, including World of Wearable Art, Circa Theatre, Java Dance Theatre, Barbarian Productions, and as Technical & Facilities Manager at BATS Theatre. She is Creative Director and producer of Company Hiraeth, a design-led performance company in Wellington, as well as a Lighting Designer for live performance, earning Lighting Designer of the Year at the 2022 Wellington Theatre Awards.

Brynne joined Footnote in 2022 as Communications and Operations Manager after being a part of the Footnote whānau for many years; first as a student intern in 2016, then as a technician and designer on the 2017 Contrast tour and 2018 ChoreoCo season Die Hard Rock Cafe Muller.

EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Liesl Nunns is a graduate of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Oxford. She joined Footnote as Development Manager in 2022, having worked in fundraising previously with Royal New Zealand Ballet and Massey University.

Miranda Manasiádis has extensive experience in creating and producing new works in both theatre and dance in Aotearoa/NZ and Greece. Since graduating with a triple major in Theatre and Film, Classical Studies and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, she has lived and worked between Wellington, New York and Athens. 

She has directed many productions for Circa Theatre in Wellington, and was on the board of Circa Theatre from 2012-2017.  She is also an creative advisor for The Lōemis Festival, and has premiered new works in many of the Lōemis programmes.  

Most recently, Miranda has dramaturged Duncan Sarkies’s new novel ‘Star Gazers’ for Victoria University Press, Sarah Foster Sproull’s work ‘To Hold’ for The Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Sofia Mavragiani’s work for the National Theatre in Athens.  She has worked as an external assessor for script writing courses at Victoria University of Wellington, and guest lectured at Toi Whakaari - The New Zealand Drama School, and Massey University.  Miranda has been the recipient of various nominations and awards for theatre work over the years, namely, The Singularity, The Great Gatsby, Shining City, Flood, and Lobsters. 

Paul is Chief Economist at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, where he leads the Economics Department and is a public voice on inflation, monetary policy, and the big forces shaping our economy. Before that, he worked across both the public and private sectors in New Zealand, running research agendas and making economics real for people — all part of a long-standing quest to help lift economic performance in Aotearoa. He has also spent many years working internationally for the OECD and with the World Bank, focusing on emerging economies including China and India.

 Outside of economics, Paul is into photography and plays piano and keyboards in a band in his basement. He thinks of communication as a form of expression — whether through music or economic storytelling — and sees Footnote’s work as another way of exploring and sharing ideas. He’s excited to support a company that pushes creative boundaries and helps tell New Zealand stories in new and compelling ways.

Kiri trained in both dance and accounting, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Dance Performance and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She continued dancing while completing a Masters in Professional Accounting at Victoria University in Wellington, following which she spent several years consulting at PwC on finance and public policy engagements. She has since transitioned to the public sector and has held a range of technical advisory and leadership roles with a focus on strategy and policy. Kiri joined the Footnote whānau as an Associate Board Member in 2023.

Born and bred Wellingtonian, Jessica has law and arts degrees from Victoria University and is passionate about everything that makes the capital city special particularly the arts.

She has worked in senior leadership positions - spanning marketing, finance and general management- for several iconic Poneke businesses L’affare, Prefab and Acme, Coffee Supreme, Vic Books and Wellington Chocolate Factory. 

Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti (Ngati Kahungunu Ki Wairarapa and Ngai Tahu) is a visual artist from the Wairarapa. Through painting and installation, her kaupapa Māori-based practice explores indigenous narratives and their relevance to a contemporary environment. She also engages in research and exhibition projects for her iwi with a particular focus on taonga Māori. Rongomaiaia completed a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts followed by a Masters in Māori Visual Arts through Massey where she also lectured prior to taking on her role as Deputy Kaihautu Toi Māori at Massey University College of Creative Arts.