D.A.N.C.E. art club
Distinguished All Night Community Entertainers
D.A.N.C.E Art Club (D.A.C) was born in 2008. We are a multi-format, interactive and collaborative art collective. We create art projects in public spaces to encourage audience engagement while disrupting the idea of what art can be and who it is made for. Manaakitanga, hospitality, music, food and sharing space are key elements.
Our installations often include old school analogue and nu school(digital) technologies along with set design, custom made costumes and food.
D.A.N.C.E. art club Curriculum Vitae available here.
D.A.C. Founders
Tuafale Tanoa’i
Tuafale Tanoa'i aka Linda T. is a video installation performance artist of Samoan heritage and is based in Auckland, Aotearoa. She was awarded the Creative NZ Pacific Arts Award for outstanding emerging artist in 2008. She also attended the Pacific Arts Festival in Tutuila as part of the official Pacific Artists delegation in 2008. In 2016 she was awarded with the SOLID International Screen Award at the Wairoa Film Festival. She most recently returned from a performance artist residency at Morni Hill & Live Hive, India. Tuāfale has been a prolific community documenter, photographer and DJ for over four decades. Tuāfale is part of the group exhibition From the Shore, curated by Ioana Gordon-Smith and first presented at Te Uru Gallery, 2018, travelled to Pataka, Porirua, 2019 and recently Dunedin Public Art Gallery 2021. Was awarded the MacMillan Brown Pacific Artists Residency in 2019. As a founding member of D.A.N.C.E. Art Club Linda T. is known for her DJ performance as part of the Guinness World Record - Longest DJ Marathon art project at Artspace (2014).
Vaimaila Urale
“As a visual artist, placing Samoan symbols and motifs at the root of my art practice is vital and empowering. Drawing on digital vernacular I am consciously engaging within the continuum of knowledge systems and patterns unique to the Moana, allowing me to create dialogue and articulate meaning in contemporary spaces”. Vaimaila Urale is a Samoan born interdisciplinary artist currently based in Avondale, Tamaki Makaurau. Her recent art commissions include installations for Sydney Festival 2020, as part of Wansolwara at 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, and Para-Site Gallery, Hong Kong as part of the exhibition Koloa: Women, Art & Technology. Vaimaila is a founding member of art collective D.A.N.C.E. art club who have engaged in social art projects in Aotearoa and Australia since 2008. She is also known for her interactive art project TYPEFACE: Live Tattoo Session designing tattoos referencing Samoan symbols and keyboard characters. TYPEFACE has been presented at Cement Fondu, Sydney, 2019; Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, 2018; Sydney Contemporary Arts Fair, 2017; CoCA, Christchurch, 2017, and SOMArts, San Francisco, 2013. In 2018 she attended the Casablanca Biennale, Morocco, as part of the group exhibition, A Maternal Lens. Vaimaila’s art practice crosses a wide spectrum of media including installation, video, digital prints, ceramics, photography and painting. Currently, she is co-director of Moana Fresh in Avondale, a retail and online platform selling art, books and accessories by Pacific and Maori artists.
Chris Fitzgerald
Chris Fitzgerald is based in Japan and has a background in event organisation/ promotion and digital design. Chris has been a long time volunteer of community radio station FLEET FM.His art practice deals with issues of uncertainty and decision making in unfamiliar circumstances. In response to this, Fitzgerald has been working with new media which can lend itself to unexplored territory.
Ahilapalapa Rands
Ahilapalapa Rands (Kanaka Maoli, iTaukei, Pākehā) is an artist and curator working between the United Kingdom, Aotearoa (NZ) and Hawaii. Rands is a founding member of D.A.N.C.E. art club and recently established UK based In*ter*is*land Collective whose focus is on supporting Pacific Island artists based in the UK. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from AUT and a Diploma in Te Reo Māori from Te Wananga o Raukawa in Ōtaki, Aotearoa. Recent Projects Include: 2018; Artist Commission, Lift Off, The Commute, IMA, Brisbane, Australia; Artist Commission, The Oceanic Reading Room, Whitby Library, England; The Cookbook Project, Sewerby Hall & Gardens, England; 2017; Contributor to Humans of the Institution Symposium, Amsterdam; Cold Islanders, Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, Hamilton; lei-pā exhibition ST PAUL St Gallery; Participant, Indigenous Arts Journal Residency, The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff; Internship as Curatorial Assistant, Inaugural Honolulu Biennial.