Aloali'i Tapu

After working as a mentor for youth and freelancing in Aotearoa and Germany, he formed the arts group Ta'alili, alongside his lifelong collaborator Tori Manley-Tapu, who works in film, stage, design and text. Together they create works with their friends from the fields of education, youth work, street dance, siva Samoa, theatre, film and poetry. Their work reflects the contemporary experience of their people and the art they create is a way to bring them together. Since 2019, they have made the stage, exhibitions and films: LEECHES, ETENA, Faces of Nature, Concrete Bloom and MANU MALO. Ta’alili’s recent workshops and performances were in Boorloo/Perth in STRUT’s RESTORE program and PERTH MOVES 2024 and 2025 where they delivered their movement workshops Lofty Lab which they’ve been developing and teaching over 10 years.

From 2022-23 Aloali'i was a resident choreographer at the K3 - Zentrum für Choreographie Tanzplan, Hamburg, spending eight months researching and developing his works alongside Tori, his family, and friends from both Germany and Aotearoa.

Ta'alili were recipients of the 2021 Arts Foundation Springboard award. Aloali'i was also awarded the FAUST Prize of the German Theater Association in 2016, for his work as a dancer with Christoph Winkler.