Tupua Tigafua
Choreographer/ Performer
Tupua Tigafua is a Sāmoan choreographer and dancer based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Tigafua has always loved to dance. Throughout his career, he has worked for most of New Zealand’s top contemporary dance companies, including Black Grace, Mau, The New Zealand Dance Company and Atamira Dance Company. He has made works for Footnote New Zealand Dance, Le Moana and Unitec.
Tigafua was a recipient of the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Award for Emerging Artist in 2017. In 2018, he premiered his first full-length dance theatre work titled Shel We? in Wellington as part of the Measina Festival. In 2021, the Wellington Theatre Awards presented him with the Excellence Award for Choreography and Movement for original work Ciggy Butts in the Sand.
A highly accomplished dancer and choreographer who has had an illustrious career dancing for some of Aotearoa’s creative elite, Tigafua is one of the most ingenious storytellers of this generation.