19 Jul 2012
Footnote Dance Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Malia Johnston to the position of director. She will succeed Deirdre Tarrant who founded the company in1986. Footnote Dance Trust chairman Ross Tanner says the board is delighted to have secured the talents of one of this country’s top director/choreographers for New Zealand’s leading contemporary dance company.
“Malia has a longstanding association with Footnote having choreographed works for the company since 2000 and is equally at home in both commercial and contemporary arenas,” Ross Tanner says
Malia Johnston is the current Artistic Director of New Zealand’s largest single art/performance event, the Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art Awards Show (WOW). She is also the director of Rifleman Productions through which she develops her own work and collaborations. Malia also teaches choreography and technique as a guest at the New Zealand School of Dance and at Unitec and regularly presents new work with the students.
WOW Founder Dame Suzie Moncrieff congratulates Malia on her appointment. She says “Malia is incredibly talented, so we are thrilled she has been given an opportunity share her talent with Footnote.”
Malia’s work with Footnote includes a commissioned work Purlieu which was performed for the New Zealand National Day at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Most recently she worked with the company to choreograph In Pieces, performed as part of the Made in New Zealand 2012 season which toured six New Zealand centres.
“Malia will take over from Deirdre Tarrant in early 2013. Until then they will work together in a transition period,” Tanner says.
“Footnote is extremely proud of what has been achieved. It is testimony to the enormous contribution Deirdre has made over the past 26 years. Building on her legacy we now look forward to a new chapter in the history of Footnote and in the progress of contemporary dance in New Zealand.”
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