For the first time ever, Auckland will become the stage for a digital dance showcase, shining a spotlight on New Zealand’s finest creatives.

The Capture: A Digital Dance Showcase will be held across nine days at Aotea Square and other hotspots across the city and will feature a collection of films, real-time digital audience performances, dance battles and more.

Tempo Te Rerenga o Tere, in partnership with Auckland Live are bringing forward “humankind’s oldest artform” to a modern world through innovation and creativity.

This showcase will be shown on a giant screen where audience members can also participate by creating their own real-time, cinematic dance designs through technology developed by the Blob Collective.

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Cathy Livermore from Tempo says the event shines a spotlight on the “new era of dance-making” following the pandemic where artistic expression found its way to a digital medium.

“Capture brings the exponential growth in digital dance to our public spaces where audience members can see it, hear it, and enjoy their experiences of dance in new ways, all in the heart of Auckland,” says Livermore.

“We hope by showing Capture in the centre of Tāmaki Makaurau people will be reminded of the beauty, enjoyment, and sense of freedom that dance can ignite in the human spirit, and we are doing it all through the lens of innovation.”

Work from artists such as Freshman Dance Crew, Taane Mete, Daniel Belton, Charlene Tedrow, Oli Mathiesen and much more will be featured.

Capture will also feature a live performance from the New Zealand Dance Company, which explores visual relationships between live dancing bodies and the screen.