18 February 2026 – 11am, 11.30am, 5pm
19 February 2026 – 11am, 11.30am, 5pm
21 February 2026 – from 4.30pm with final screening at 6.15pm
A celebration of the Lunar New Year at our place, Te Papa Tongarewa Free screenings of a trilogy of dance films by internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Daniel Belton. The trilogy includes a world premiere screening of Daniel’s new work, HORSES.
TIGER (Silver-Lotus), and DRAGON which will be screened alongside HORSES to complete the trilogy of films all created by Daniel and presented at past celebrations of the Lunar New Year in Wellington.
HORSES draws inspiration from the Chinese Zodiac sign for 2026, the fire horse, bringing together a fantastic team of Aotearoa hip hop artists (Joshua and Tyler Faleatua), taonga pūoro musicians, Mahina Kingi-Kaui and Ariana Tikao, collaborating Tokyo-based dance artists (Ririka Takizawa, Karim Araoka and Nao Kamei), and New Zealand-Japanese musician Mark de Clive-Lowe.
The mix of Asian and Pacific arts voices creates a unique experience for audiences, championing the physical prowess and beauty of the majestic horse through a fusion of traditional and contemporary performing arts.
DRAGON is a high-energy dance-theatre film, cut to music by Mark de Clive-Lowe, with renowned taonga pūoro musicians Mahina Kingi-Kaui and Alister Fraser. The film also features Wellington-based dancers Airu Matsuda, Samara Reweti and artists of Idiot Savant from Japan. Through the power of digital dance- theatre, motion graphics and music, DRAGON raises awareness of the ecological issues we face on a global scale. Symbolism of the dragon weaves visceral performances with natural environments to celebrate a treasured earth and to speak to the custodial role of humankind
TIGER is a high energy dance opus to celebrate the great cat in the meadow of our consciousness, and makes a bow to the sister peaks Mount Fuji (JPN) and Mount Taranaki (NZ). In ancient oriental philosophy, Yin and Yang describes how contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected and interdependent in the natural world - they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another, cultivating diversity.
HORSES
DRAGON
TIGER