Skip to main content

Kōrero: Contemporary dance

Douglas Wright

Video file

In the 2003 documentary Haunting Douglas, Douglas Wright is seen in excerpts from Elegy for Jim, Leigh and Bayly (1993) and Arc 3 (1999). Between the two performances he reads a section of his fictionalised memoir, Ghost dance(2004), describing his feelings upon becoming a dancer. In the documentary, Wright recalls that ‘from the earliest time I can remember I was always dancing. I still don’t know what possessed me – perhaps the fluttering white moth laid its eggs in me and my dancing was a kind of hatching….  In Tuakau, South Auckland in the early 1960s, a dancing boy was frowned on, with a frown handed down for generations.’

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Spacific Films

Reference: Haunting Douglas [videorecording]. Producers, Shona McCullagh and Leanne Pooley; director Leanne Pooley. Auckland: Spacific Films, 2004

'Elegy' excerpt courtesy of Chris Graves. 'Arc 3' excerpt courtesy of Grant Lahood

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Marianne Schultz, Contemporary dance – Modern dance flourishes, 1970s and 1980s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/video/42593/douglas-wright (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Marianne Schultz, i tāngia i te 16 September 2013.