Dancer’s mission to motivate self-esteem

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 6

Dancer’s mission to motivate self-esteem

By

DEBORAH MCPHERSON

Kingslea’s first artist in residence is embarrassed to admit the nickname the teenagers there have already given him. "I was wearing these little black-tinted granny glasses, and some of the kids started calling out 'Hey, tranny’,” says Charles Neho. “They thought I looked like a transvestite.” Neho, aged 25, is an Auckland dancer who began as an artist in residence at the Kingslea Resource Centre on Tuesday. His six-week residence is one of three pilot schemes throughout New Zealand run by the Social Welfare Department in conjunction with the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council’s arts access programme. During his residence, Neho will be helped by Debbie McCullagh, a member of the Limbs Dance Company, Jamie Bull, a choreographer, and Sarah Franks,, director of the Puawai Polynesian Performing Arts

scheme. Tall and energetic, he seems to ’have already built a rapport with the teenagers. He is enthusiastic about using the medium of movement to help them gain selfesteem and confidence. “There is a huge amount of creative energy in this community, but it just hasn’t been directed before,” he says. “These kids are in here became they can’t survive

out there. I can suggest that learning about movement can be helpful to them, as well as click in to the things they want to do.” Neho says he will be working with the other staff as well as with the teenagers. He has just returned from a three-month stint at several dance schools in New York. He has been dancing for four years, his interest having been sparked after joining a Labour Department drama and music scheme in Auckland in 1984. From there he joined Te Kanikani O Te Rangatahi, a Maori youth contemporaiy dance group, which still tours New Zealand. In 1985, Neho was accepted on a dance training programme with the Limbs Dance Company through a Labour Department scheme. He graduated in 1987 from the New Zealand School of Dance, where he received a scholarship to go to New York.