The 2013 Tempo festival ran from October 9th-20th, marking ten years of Tempo (the Auckland Dance Festival became Tempo: Auckland's Festival of Dance in 2003). Though there were fewer events this year, favourite showcase programmes; Prime, Fresh, Y Chromozome, Out of The Box, Secondary Colours, Tertiary Colours, The Kids Show and Tuakana all attracted large audiences to the Loft and Rangatira spaces at Q Theatre. Footnote and Atamira again featured new choreography, with Sarah Foster-Sproull presenting her first full-length work, Colt, on the Footnote dancers. Kaha, from Atamira, offered seven short works from the collective’s members.

Tumutumu, by Louise-Potiki Bryant in collaboration with Richard Nunns and Paddy Free, combined sound, movement and video projections in a work that saw Bryant move in ways that conjured Māori dance and ritual as well as contemporary expression. Pacific dance was represented by two offerings; Fatu Na Toto by Tupe Lualua and a programme of three works produced by Pacific Dance NZ. The choreographers for this triple bill were Charlene Tedrow, Mario Faumui and Oliva Taouma. Another triple bill was Trifle, with works by choreographers Kelly Nash, Zahra Killeen Chance and Jessie McCall. South Indian classical dance was represented by The Jungle Book by Yatra Dance. Carnival Hound by Maria Dabrowska, a duet for Alex Leonhartsberger and Mariana Rinaldi, with an original composition by Eden Mulholland, was described as ‘an intimate and daring exploration of power, love, and control’. Two programmes this year expanded the notion of dance; Same Same But Different, from the Dust Palace, and Fault Lines, a work performed by the Leshan Dance Company of China directed by theatre/opera director Sara Brodie.

Mary Jane O’Reilly returned to the festival as the focus of this year’s Honouring a Dancer.