Sean has worked as a freelance contemporary dancer in Aotearoa for over 30 years. He trained at Auckland’s Performing Arts School(now Unitec) (1991-1992) and Wellington’s New Zealand School of Dance (1994). He has been in association/collaboration with Atamira Dance Collective since its inception in 2000, firstly as an audience member and then as a dancer/performer from 2006.
He has performed in Maaka Pepene’s “Memoirs of Active Service”, Moss Paterson’s “Moko”for a tour to Beijing and Seoul, Kelly Nash’s works “Ma”(Manaia Season) as well as“Atamira” and Gabrielle Thomas's "Tomo"(live performance and VR film). Sean is part of "Te Wheke" a major new work to celebrate the company’s 21st year which premiered in 2021 touring nationwide and to the USA. As a choreographer Sean premiered his work “Ngā Wai” for the company in 2020.
Also as a maker/director he choreographed the work “Matariki for Tamariki” 2019-2024 for The New Zealand Dance Company. Sean has performed with/for NZDC, Douglas Wright, Michael Parmenter, Shona McCullogh, Tupua Tigafua, Lucy Marinkovich, Lyne Pringle, Eddie Elliot, Malia Johnson and Footnote amongst others. He has also appeared in film, theatre and opera.
In 1995 he was a founding member of Black Grace Dance Company performing both nationally and internationally with the company for 23 years.
Sean was awarded a Te Tumu Toi NZ Arts Foundation Laureate in 2023.
Repertoire
A duet - KIKO (2022)
Two beautiful people who know each other well being asked to perform set movement that came from random provocations to a piece of music. Made by someone who knew not what he was doing or after. Mauriora.
Repertoire
A brief encounter with Oli Mathiesen and J S Bach - KIKO (2022)
Choreography credit: Oli Mathiesen
The brief - Oli to choreograph a 1.5 minute piece in 2 hours. Completed. Everything was decided in that time; theme, costume, music. All came together by the chance metho
"A soulmate dance, wairua breathing in rhythm, they move wisely and efficiently, and love enduringly. Attuned and yet individual. Queer soma as the holistic body."
- Jaqs Clarke, Theatreview (2022)
Repertoire
STILL - Kaha-Tripleboost (2022)
A meandering through yesterdays curiosities. Of exuberance and melancholy, a clicking of snapshots..taking a pun(t) on (re)moving through a musing connectivity of randomly logical bone & muscle poetics. Presentation and internal. The stillness of anxiousness. A body influenced by the sequencing of time, a dance.
"His detailed expressions tells of joy, of curiosity, of struggles and triumphs. We are privy to his inner dialogue as he reflects over memories of his own and of others, all whilst cloud-gazing out the window of this wharenui."
- Natasha van Etten, Theatreview (2022)
Repertoire
Ngā Wai (2020)
Drawing on mythology and historical figures set against the backdrop of Te Motu-o-Kura, Ngā Wai is a new full-length dance work from one of Aotearoa’s most distinguished dance artists – Sean MacDonald (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa)
Seers, shapeshifters, warrior protectors, lovers and thwarted romance from both history and mythology form the essence of this poetic new work inspired from the sacred waters and whakapapa of Waimārama, Sean’s ancestral home in the Hawkes Bay. Ngā Wai is about water and how that flows with everything, is in everything, the pool and flow of the moon and the maternal. It flows with connection, history and strength following the journey of Takitimu (migration waka) from Samoa to Waimārama.
"The name adhering to the plurality of waters that exist in ourselves, landscapes, and the cosmos we inhabit, we flowed into community to share stories. The Q Theatre was moving with whānaunga gathered... it was a maze of re-activating relationships inclusive of our lingering gaze, and touch."
- Dr Tia Reihana-Morunga