Performances
Tohaino o painga ki te ao
Share your gifts with the world
Jolt has developed a dynamic performance programme that has rewired how audiences with and without disabilities see and understand the world.
Upcoming Performances
Whakapapa
Friday 1 May 2026 @7pm
Venue: Te Atamira in Queenstown
Co-created by the dancers, each piece offers a deeply personal perspective: Joel Forman (Ngāi Tahu) reclaims his whakapapa, weaving together his Māori and Pākehā whānau and reconnecting to the whenua of Moeraki; Jokani Coe (Cook Islands/Samoa) honours the mountains of Rarotonga and the strength his culture gives him; Robert Sopoaga (Samoa) brings the vitality of Siva — the dance of life and community; Jono Bennett (Fijian Indian) evokes memories of his mother through the image of a beautiful old tree; Jacob Levington (Pākehā) reflects on his connection to each member of his close family; and Lachlan Oakes (Pākehā) reflects on his connection to whakapapa through his experience of autism.
Vivaldi’s Four Season and The Lark Ascending - A Sensory Experience
Friday 9 May 2025 at 10am and 11.30am - @The Ron Ball Studio at Christchurch Town Hall
Presented by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Jolt. A unique, disability-led, interactive orchestral experience for people with intellectual disabilities – including complexand profound access needs.
CSO strings will perform four evocative movements of Vivaldi’sThe Four Seasons, featuring CSO musicians as soloists – Assistant Concertmaster Sarah McCracken, Principal Second Violin Arna Morton, Violin Laura Barton, and Violin Andrew Maddick. They’ll be joined by CSO woodwinds and violinist Mark Menzies for Vaughan Williams’ serene The Lark Ascending. The performance will be disability-led, shaped by Jolt to create an experience that is sensory, responsive, and imaginative, allowing you to connect with the music in your own way. Jolt dancers will host, dynamically connecting the audience with the music through movement and interaction. This special performance will take place in CSO’s Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch Town Hall – the perfect setting for an intimate concert with its impeccable acoustics and warm atmosphere.
Previous Performances
Dusk to Dawn
Friday 21 August 2026 @ 10am and 11.30am
Venue: Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch Town Hall
Join Jolt and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra for a unique, disability-led, interactive orchestral experience. Thoughtfully created for people with intellectual disabilities, including those with complex and profound access needs, this interactive experience brings live orchestral music and expressive dance together, with freedom to engage in your own way or step back as needed.
Jolt Interactive
Jolt Interactive creates dance and theatre experiences for audiences with intellectual disabilities that are fully accessible, and which deliver the immediacy and power of live performance.
Highly interactive, multi-sensory and intimate, Jolt Interactive productions have been designed to allow each audience member to find and express their own creative voice, in their own space. Past Jolt Interactive productions include Fish and Song.
For 2023, a new Jolt Interactive production titled UP, was presented in partnership with Chamber Music New Zealand at The Little Theatre (Lower Hutt), TAPAC (Auckland) and Altiora (Christchurch). Devised and directed by Lyn Cotton, UP featured circo-artist Danny Lee Syme, Jolt performers Jacob Levington, Renée Ryan and Aleasha Seaward, and musicians Reuben Derrick (Saxophone + Clarinet), Pablo Ruiz Henao (Sousaphone + Flugelhorn) and Mark La Roche (Percussion).
(UP) was like riding on a wave, sometimes very gentle, sometimes crashing down. We really marveled at the way the mood in the theatre was high energy one minute and then so gentle and calm. There were so many incredible elements, music; lighting; costume; props (the story you managed to tell with the boxes was magic!!)
The Seasons
In November 2022, National Disability Arts Partner Chamber Music New Zealand presented The Seasons, featuring 11 of Jolt’s dancers with violin soloist Martin Riseley and musicians from the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra performing Max Richter’s ingeniously re-imagined score of Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons, in Wellington, New Plymouth, Napier, Christchurch, Invercargill and Dunedin.
In what often feels like an uncertain and crazy world, especially after the isolation and "pause” that COVID created for everyone – including the arts, The Seasons tour has given us back some much-needed beauty.
Takiwātanga
Developed by Carl Te Tone Huia and directed by Artistic Director Lyn Cotton, Takiwātanga is an autobiographical work that explores Carl’s view of the world - a view shaped by his whakapapa, his wairua, and his lived experience of Autism.
Carl and Kereana Mosen performed Takiwātanga in London at the 40th anniversary of Amici Dance Theatre Company in June 2022.
Takiwātanga has also been performed by Carl and Aleasha Seaward at the 2021 Whānau Ora Symposium in Dunedin, at Rehua Marae and for Hei Whakapiki Mauri.
Biennale
Featuring over 130 dancers from all Jolt classes, the Biennale is a joyous celebration of diversity and difference.