Receiving the 2026 Springboard Award for Dance gifted by Marko & Jen Bogoievski – Mentored by 2011 Laureate Lemi Ponifasio 

Sefa Tunupopo is an artist of Samoan descent based in Wainuiomata, Aotearoa. He is an independent dancer, theatre maker, and the leader of Indigenous arts collective Shifting Centre. Sefa’s conviction in dance is synonymous with love, and aspires to create art with and for his intersecting communities.

Sefa works across street dance, performance, and theatre. With foundations in cypher culture and freestyle, his artistic language moves between theatre-making, choreography, and community-led platforms. He is an active freelance artist, working with companies such as Movement of the Human, Tawata Productions, and The New Zealand Dance Company, while maintaining a strong leadership presence within the street dance community in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

His creative practice is anchored in cyphers, futurism, and an ongoing inquiry into maintenance and support as artistic frameworks. With cyphers forming the core of his methodology, Sefa imagines Indigenous-led futures beyond inherited structures. Alongside this, he is developing a practice centred on maintenance and the ongoing mahi required to sustain ourselves, our relationships, and the creative ecosystems we build.

Sefa is also a leader of Shifting Centre, an Indigenous arts collective based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Shifting Centre fosters space for Indigenous artists through artistic creation and community engagement. With the collective, he has directed theatre works, short films, and key community-facing initiatives such as their street styles training intensive SHIFTING & FRIENDS and arts festival CIVIC, while continuing to hold weekly open choreography classes and cyphers for the local dance community.

Sefa’s practice continues to evolve through performance, platform-building, and community leadership. He remains committed to deepening his craft while strengthening the conditions that allow Indigenous and street dance artists to imagine and sustain creative futures together.

Panel Statement: “A young dance artist who has founded an organisation in Wellington that assists youth with dance and movement abilities, Sefa Tunupopo is a force that lingers in one's memory. A dynamic performer and choreographer, Sefa fuses his love and knowledge of contemporary dance, hip hop, breakdance and Pasifika styles into a unique artistic voice.”