Kelly Nash, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Te Rangi and Pākehā heritage, is a choreographer, performer, film maker, educator, somatic practitioner, and researcher based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

A career that has spanned more than 27 years across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, Kelly has contributed significantly to contemporary dance and Māori contemporary performance through her work with Douglas Wright Dancers, Curve Dance Collective, Atamira Dance Company and Body Island.

Kelly has been an integral part of Atamira Dance Company since 2006 as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, healer, artistic manager, rehearsal director and director. She was Interim Artistic Manager from 2023–2024, and was Assistant Director and Rehearsal Director for Te Wheke during its 2023 United States tour, including performances at The Joyce Theatre in New York.

Her choreographic work includes full-length theatre works, short works, gallery-based performance, film and interdisciplinary projects. Souvenirs of what I once described as happiness received Most Outstanding Dance Work in Metro Magazine, as well as Best Short Production and Best Stage Design at Tempo Dance Festival. She was awarded the Tup Lang Choreographic Award to create MEME skin, and her work Indigenarchy toured across the United States and Hawai‘i.

Kelly is a Foundation Instructor and Advanced Practitioner of ConTact C.A.R.E, a bodywork system focused on releasing frozen contractions and supporting the body to reorganise from shock and impact. This practice deeply informs her choreography, teaching, facilitation and one-to-one therapeutic work.

Through Body Island, Kelly is developing a body-led artistic platform that brings together contemporary dance, Māori and Indigenous perspectives, somatic practice, film, education, healing and community engagement.

Nancy Wijohn is a multi-disciplinary artist, producer, performer, choreographer and somatic practitioner working across Māori contemporary dance, bodywork, producing and community-engaged practice. Her foundations in competitive netball, rugby and touch developed a physical intelligence grounded in agility, discipline, resilience and instinct — qualities that continue to shape her presence as both a performer and creative leader.

As co-director of Body Island, she contributes to the development of SomaTactics and to the ongoing creative and organisational life of the company, including the production and performance of Mythosoma and other touring works.

She has performed and toured extensively throughout Aotearoa, the United States, Canada, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Her choreographic works for Atamira include Tūhoe Whakapapa, Pārua and Pito, contributing original kaupapa Māori narratives to the company’s repertoire.

From 2012 to 2023, Nancy was an original cast member of Ōkāreka Dance Company’s internationally acclaimed Mana Wahine, touring to Holland, Australia, Canada, Tahiti, Hawai‘i and across Aotearoa. Her wider performance highlights include work with Douglas Wright, Carol Brown, Daniel Belton’s Good Company Arts, Lisa Reihana, Bianca Hyslop, Rowan Pierce and Santee Smith.

In 2024, Nancy completed Te Pou Theatre’s He Kē Kei Aku Ringa Producer Programme, strengthening her producing practice across budgeting, scheduling, contracting and delivery. Creative Producer for Scotty Cotter’s NEKE, overseeing delivery for its two-centre tour, 2025 was lead producer for the world premiere of Body Island’s Mythosoma at YIRRAMBOI Festival in Naarm/Melbourne, and currently senior producer for Yirramboi 2027.

An Advanced Practitioner and Foundation Instructor of ConTact C.A.R.E, she works at the intersection of bodywork, somatic repair, Indigenous healing, performance and education.

Georgie Goater is a dance artist from Aotearoa, currently based in Helsinki. Born and raised bilingually between Nagoya, Japan and Ōtautahi Christchurch, Georgie’s practice has developed over two decades between Aotearoa and Finland through performance, choreography, writing, facilitation and collaboration.

Her work is grounded in improvisation, somatic inquiry, inclusive movement practice, multicultural contexts and diverse embodied perception. She collaborates independently, with Kaaos Company in Finland, and with collectives including Body Island and Mome: memory as medium. Her practice has been shaped through work with Touch Compass, Shameless Crowd Pleaser, Bangers and Mash, Vitamin S, Kaaos Company, Contact Improvisation and dancing in natural and urban environments.

Georgie holds a BPSA in Contemporary Dance from Unitec School of Performing Arts and an MA in Dance Pedagogy from the Helsinki University of the Arts. She was part of Body Island’s Mythosoma at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts. As part of the advisory panel, Georgie brings insight into inclusive practice, somatic pedagogy, improvisation, international collaboration and embodied artistic development.

Sean MacDonald is one of Aotearoa’s most respected contemporary dance artists, with a career spanning more than 30 years across performance, choreography, theatre, film and opera. He has worked with many of Aotearoa’s leading choreographers and companies, including Douglas Wright, Michael Parmenter, Shona McCullagh, Black Grace, The New Zealand Dance Company and Atamira Dance Company. He was a founding member of Black Grace and has been closely connected to Atamira since its early years.

Sean is a 2023 Te Tumu Toi Arts Foundation Laureate and continues to be recognised for his depth, sensitivity and enduring contribution to contemporary dance in Aotearoa. For Body Island, Sean was rehearsal director for Mythosoma at YIRRAMBOI Festival in Naarm/Melbourne and the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington, bringing his experience, care and embodied intelligence to the development and performance of the work.

Madi Tumataroa is an emerging Māori contemporary dance artist and creative practitioner working across performance, choreography, costume and embodied design.

Madi has worked with Atamira Dance Company as a dance artist, performing in works including Ka Mua Ka Muri and participating in choreographic residency contexts such as Kia Pōhewatia, which support emerging Māori contemporary dance voices. Through this work, she has developed her practice within kaupapa Māori performance environments, contributing as both a performer and creative collaborator.

With Body Island, Madi was part of Mythosoma as costume designer, stylist, maker and understudy. Her costume collaboration brought texture, layering, movement and visual intelligence into the work, supporting the performers’ shifting states of rupture, memory, protection and transformation. Her design approach helped extend the physical language of the body into fabric, silhouette and image.

As part of Body Island’s creative whānau, Madi brings a sensitive eye for movement, material and embodied presence. Her work supports Body Island’s interest in interdisciplinary performance, emerging Māori leadership, somatic inquiry, design-led storytelling and the ways bodies carry memory through both movement and visual form.

Caleb Heke is a contemporary dance artist from Tāmaki Makaurau, with whakapapa to Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa and Te Aupōuri. Their interest in dance began through music and storytelling, and their practice explores rhythm, arrhythmia, texture, shape and embodied narrative.

Caleb has been dancing with Atamira Dance Company since 2020, performing in works including Te Wheke, Kiko, Ka Mua Ka Muri and Rongo Whakapā. In 2022, they choreographed Mai Papatūānuku ki te Ao as part of Atamira’s KAHA – Tripleboost, drawing on Papatūānuku, whakapapa, tīpuna and creation narratives.

Caleb has also worked with Jess Crompton, Carla Harré / JawlineCo and Jacob Reynolds / Measured Frenzy Co. They performed in Body Island’s Mythosoma at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, bringing sensitivity, physical clarity and an emerging choreographic voice to the work.

Caleb is a student of ConTact C.A.R.E, extending their interest in the body through somatic repair, skeletal listening, pressure, impact and embodied adaptation. As part of Body Island’s wider creative whānau, Caleb represents an emerging generation of Māori contemporary dance artists working across performance, whakapapa, somatic inquiry and embodied storytelling.

Moana Ete is a multidisciplinary artist from Te Whanganui-a-Tara, with whakapapa to Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Wheke, Rāpaki and Sāmoa. Her practice spans theatre, film, music, writing, directing and voice, bringing together performance, storytelling, song and cultural inquiry.

A graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, Moana is also known as the musician A Girl Named Mo. Her work explores identity, colonisation, representation, motherhood, collective futures and the lived experiences of wāhine Māori and Moana artists in Aotearoa.

Moana performed in Body Island’s Mythosoma at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, bringing a powerful live vocal and text-based presence to the work. Her role supported the relationship between body, voice, shock, memory and return, anchoring the performance through song, spoken text and emotional intelligence.

As part of Body Island’s creative whānau, Moana brings depth as a performer, vocalist, writer and director. Her practice supports Body Island’s interest in live voice, embodied storytelling, Indigenous and Moana perspectives, and performance as a space for truth, complexity, repair and transformation.