Hip hop globetrotters
Lower Hutt’s Toa Paranihi and Upper Hutt’s Connor Masseurs have come a long way from dancing around their family living rooms as kids.
Their hip-hop dance show, Blueprint, scooped them an award at this year’s Wellington Fringe Festival and the duo are taking their act to the international version of the festival, held in San Diego this June.
On top of that, the duo regularly jet around the world to dance as backup for Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jolin Tsai.
And it all started with a dash of superstar Michael Jackson.
‘‘We were both heavily inspired by Michael Jackson. It’s hard to come across a dancer not inspired by him,’’ Masseurs said.
The pair, both aged 21, started dancing professionally three years ago. They graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance and were picked up to become backup dancers. Tsai’s head choreographer is originally from Auckland and asked the duo if they wanted to come onboard.
Packing up their bags and flying over to China to perform in front of 20,000 people is becoming the norm for the two dancers - but the International Fringe Festival will be the first time they have taken centre stage overseas.
‘‘If we’ve done something international it’s always that we’re contributing to a piece of someone else’s picture.’’
Masseurs said it would be tricky performing in front of an American audience - they were used to performing in New Zealand and Wellington and knew what audiences here liked.
The pair faced a big grind as they reworked their show, Blueprint, and started fundraising for their San Diego trip.
They won their spot in the festival only a couple of months ago and it had been a tight turnaround to get everything sorted for their American performance on June 23.
‘‘We’re still only young artists so we have to remind ourselves that it will be what it’s meant to be,’’ Masseurs said.