USP hosting ‘Epeli Hau’ofa Dance Festival II [1]
Friday, February 19, 2016 - 17:46. Updated on Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 15:12.
The ‘Epeli Hau’ofa Dance Festival II, showcasing art, music, education, culture and heritage is planned by the University of the South Pacific’s Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, on 21-26 March 2016 in memory of the late Professor ‘Epeli Hau’ofa.
The festival will be headed by various groups including the Oceania Dance Theatre, Pasifika Voices, the Visual Arts department, Pacific Studies, and the Pacific Cultural Heritage Hub.
Artistic Director, Peter Rockford Espiritu, said the festival will focus on the very heart and soul of Oceania, its people, their past, their present and their future.
“We return to our roots and invest in the multiculturalism that connects us all as Oceanians,” he said.
The festival premiered two years ago with performers from Japan, Germany, Taiwan and United States taking part as well as various local dance groups such as VOU, Rako, Conservatorium of music, The Shobna Channel Dancers, and USP's Oceania Dance Theatre.
The USP’s Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies was founded in 1997 by the late Professor ‘Epeli Hau’ofa and under his leadership, his vision to create A Home for the Arts - An Oceanic Space, has seen the centre flourish into one of the region’s leading institutes for original creativity in visual and performing arts.
He once said “Oceania is vast, Oceania is expanding, Oceania is hospitable and generous, Oceania is rising from the depths of brine and regions of fire deeper still, Oceania is us. We are the sea, we are the ocean."