Mānoa Erasito Teaiwa

Mānoa Erasito Teaiwa is a young male dancer who was born in Suva, Fiji and migrated to Wellington, New Zealand in 2000. He is of Rotuman, African American, I-Kiribati, and Cornish descent. Mānoa comes from a family of engineers on his father’s side, and academics on his mother’s side. Mother Teresia Teaiwa, a Senior Lecturer and poet at Victoria University and her partner Sean Mallon, a Senior Curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa have always supported Manoa in his decision to pursue dancing.

Mānoa took up several weekly hip-hop dance classes at the age of 13 and enjoyed this form of expression and creativity. He then took part in the 2010 contemporary dance program facilitated by the New Zealand School of Dance called “Tu Move”. The program’s purpose was to introduce young Pacific Island and Maori men to the classical and contemporary world of dance through Hip-Hop, Kapa Haka and Commercial styles. Through “Tu Move” Mānoa learned that he loved all forms of dancing and wanted to pursue a career in performing arts.

After leaving high school at the age of 18 he was accepted into the two year Commercial Dance course at the Whitireia Performing Arts Centre where he trained full time in Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Hip-Hop and Contemporary styles and graduated with a diploma in Performing Arts: Commercial dance in November 2013. Whitireia opened his eyes to the possibilities for work and further training he was eligible for as a male dancer.

While studying full time Mānoa was also a member of the Wellington Hip-Hop dance studio “The Company NZ” and featured in their eight person adult dance crew “De La Funk”. After ranking 2nd nationally in 2013 “De La Funk” successfully qualified to compete in the annual HHI: World Hip-Hop Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada where they qualified to go through to the Semi-Final round.

In 2014 Mānoa continues to pursue his dream of a dancing career and is beginning to audition for other crews and companies.

You can follow Mānoa’s journey as a dancer on his YouTube Channel and his dance blog