Artist:
Tau Dance Theater
PROGRAM: PACIFIC ISLAND CONTEMPORARY DANCE & THEATER FUSION
Tau Dance Theater (TDT) is the only professional dance/theater company founded and directed by a native Hawaiian based in Honolulu. Founded in 1996, TDT is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable arts organization. TDT manifests safe and creative spaces for ‘Brown Dance’ culture and the arts to thrive and grow equally in the traditional and contemporary expressions. Centering focus on Indigenous identities and voices in a moving dialogue through Pōhuli, reindiginization through the creation of our own movement modality and vocabulary reformed into the foundation of a new movement language paradigm. The work creates bridges that form connections between communities through arts for health and social change, rebuilding healthy communities where currently there are fracture lines to powerfully draw on those experiences to connect communities-within-
Past statewide outreach include: Island wide on O’ahu; (Hana, Kahului, Paia, Wailuku & Lahaina) Maui; Kaunanakakai, Molokai; Lana’i Town, Lanai; (Lihue, Kapa’a, Pōloa, & ‘Ele’ele, Kaua’i; (Hilo, Volcano, Waimea, Kealakekua, Captain Cook, Kona, Hawi & Ka’u) Hawai’i Island.
TDT is a recipient of the (NEA) National Endowment for the Arts 2023-2024 (GAP) Grants for Arts Project and 2022-2023 Challenge America grant, supporting organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts. 2021-2023, TDT toured to Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts in New York City as part of their ‘Festival of Firsts’; Seattle, Washington; Atlanta Georgia; Crazy Horse Memorial (South Dakota), Cache Valley Center for the Arts in Logan, Utah (supported by a APAP Arts Forward Grant) & (Nagoya, Tokyo) Japan.
Founder, Executive & Artistic Director, Peter Rockford Espiritu is a 2024 Western Arts Alliance Performing Arts Discovery Program (PAD) Fellow, developed to expand international markets and generate overseas touring opportunities for U.S. performing artists and a 2024 WESTAF BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Artist Fund, investing in the wellbeing and safety of BIPOC artists, cultural practitioners, and collaboratives by providing no-strings-attached funding and support. He is also a 2023 Dance/USA Arts Fellows to Artists recipient and a 2022 Western Arts Alliance – Advancing Indigenous Performance – Native Launchpad Fellow. Mr. Espiritu was just awarded a prestigious 2025 residency for the creation of new work at Jacob’s Pillow and is a 2021 BANFF Intercultural Indigenous Choreographers Creation Lab awardee in Canada.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
Technical: Please inquire for each program requested
Age Level Appropriateness: Preschool – senior citizens
Type of Program: Lecture/Demonstration, short and long-term residency
