Douglas Wright

Douglas Wright was a writer, visual artist and most significantly, a revered dancer and choreographer, who was awarded an Order of Merit for services to dance. Growing up in the farming town of Tūākau, Wright trained as a gymnast before discovering ballet. After working with Limbs Dance Company in the early 80s, he joined New York's prestigious Paul Taylor Dance Company, then formed his own prolific company upon returning home. His life and work has oft been profiled in New Zealand film and television, including in award-winning documentaries I Am a Dancer! and Haunting Douglas. Wright died in November 2018, age 62.  

In Tūākau, South Auckland, in the early 1960s, a dancing boy was frowned on with a frown handed down for generations. Douglas Wright reading excerpts from his award-winning autobiography Ghost Dance, in 2003 documentary Haunting Douglas