Douglas Wright ‘one of Aotearoa’s great artists’
Choreographer and dancer
TRIBUTES are flowing for lauded New Zealand choreographer and dancer Douglas Wright MNZM, who died on November 14 aged 62.
The master of contemporary dance had been in hospice care with terminal cancer.
Actor Joel Tobeck posted on Twitter: ‘‘Douglas Wright. RIP. Being taught by you was the highlight of my time in the dance world. So inspiring and so much soul.’’
Auckland Arts Festival artistic director Jonathan Bielski wrote: ‘‘Vale Douglas Wright MZNM. Choreographer. Dancer. Artist. Arts Laureate. One of Aotearoa’s great artists.’’
Born in Tuakau, Auckland, on October 14, 1956, Wright joined Limbs Dance Company in 1980 before joining the Paul Taylor Company in New York and the DV8 Physical Theatre in London.
Wright returned to New Zealand in the late 1980s and formed the Douglas Wright Dance Company, going on to create more than 30 works during his career, which he toured throughout New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
His longer works included Gloria, Forever, How On Earth, Now is the Hour, Buried Venus, Inland, Black Milk, and The Kiss Inside.
In addition to his work as a dancer and choreographer, Wright wrote two semiautobiographical books, Ghost Dance and Terra Incognito; as well as a volume of poems, Laughing Mirror.
Wright battled ill health for many years, following a 1999 HIV diagnosis.
He was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to dance in 1998 and was one of five inaugural Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureates in 2000. — The New Zealand Herald