2014 marked the final Tempo Festival under the artistic direction of Celia Walmsley. Producer Carrie Rae Cunningham again led the Tempo team in getting the festival up and running at Q Theatre alongside Production Manager Hannah Rogers.

Dancers from the Pacific were well represented this year with a programme from Pacific Dance NZ featuring works from female choreographers ArunaPo-Ching, Filoi Vaila’au, Ula Naulutubutubu and Nikki Upoko. VOU Dance Company from Fiji presented Mataqali Drift. The Indian dance form Bharata Natyam was highlighted in For the Love of Dance by Yatra Dance. White Face Crew, consisting of Justin Haiu, Jarod Rawiri and Tupua Tigafua performed Double Derelicts. This physical theatre, clowning, hip-hop dance show brought humour and pathos to the Rangatira space at Q.

The Showcase programmes of Fresh, Prime, Y Chromozone, The Kids Show and Secondary Colours again featured an array of styles, genres and performers, including Lizzie Hewitt, Perri Exeter, Kura Te Ua, Lucy Marinkovic & Anita Hunziker, Paul Wilson & Kayla Paige (Fresh); Carol Brown, Lyne Pringle & Sasha Copland, Merenia Gray, Julia Mageau Gray and Zahra Kileen-Chance (Prime); works by Michael Parmenter, Matthew Moore & Andrew Cesan, Brigitte Knight, Melana Khabazi, IDENTITY Dance Crew (Y Chromozone); MEBA, Norris Studios, The Dance Studio, Pointy Puppies, and Diocesan School (the Kids Show) and dance students from Unitec, University of Auckland, and MIT (Secondary Colours). Younger performers took the spotlight, blending dance and aerial circus arts, in Fingerprints from the Highjinx Youth Circus.

New contemporay dance from Luke Hanna & Jason Wright (eye), Jessie McCall and Shani Dickins (Tassel Me This), Louise Potiki- Bryant (KIRI), and Footnote with a work by Alexa Wilson highlighted the diversity of dance in Aotearoa in 2014.

Choreographer Malia Johnston and director Emma Willis presented two works at the Musgrove Studio at the Maidment Theatre complex; Amanimal and Red:a sketch gallery. Non-performance events included Off The Record, an open forum on dance reviewing and a session called The Director’s Cut: everything you wanted to ask about dance but were afraid to ask.

Jacqui Cesan, owner of The Dance Studio and founder of BoyzDance2 was the focus of Honouring a Dancer in 2014. Many offshoots of The Dance Studio including IDENTITY crew and Out of the Box were periennal Tempo favourites and Jacquie’s contribution to youth dance in Tamaki Makaurau was celebrated at this event.