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Image description: The headshot of Peter Rockford Espiritu is of a mature and handsome native Hawaiian male with black hair neatly combed back. He has brown eyes, a thin black mustache and goatee under his chin. He is wearing a traditional long sleeve, button collar, black Hawaiian print shirt in a bold geometric chevron design in a golden mustard color that resembles traditional Hawaiian Tapa or bark cloth design. Mr. Espiritu is wearing ten strands of golden brown traditional Ni’ihau shell lei that surrounds his neck and rests on the middle of his chest. He has a calm and welcoming demeanor with a slight smile on his face. Photo by Chris Rohrer.
he/him/him
Hawai’i; Honolulu, HI
Peter Rockford Espiritu manifests safe and creative spaces for “Brown Dance” culture and the arts to thrive and grow equally in the traditional and contemporary expressions. Mr. Espiritu’s focus centers on Indigenous identities and voices in a moving dialogue addressing current local issues of urbanization and globalization.| He intends to continue his journey towards articulating Pōhuli, reindiginization through the creation of his own movement modality and vocabulary reformed into the foundation of a new movement language paradigm for his dance company, Tau Dance Theater. The work creates bridges that form connections between communities through arts for health and social change. It re-builds healthy communities where currently there are fracture lines to powerfully draw on those experiences to connect communities-within-communities, bringing people closely together who feel divided or marginalized. Mr. Espiritu is also a 2022 recipient of the Western Arts Alliance, Advancing Indigenous Performances -Native Launchpad Cohort and Intercultural International Choreographer’s Creation Lab residency at Banff Center for the Creative Arts.
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