Summary"I believe that when I dance, I magnify my relationship to myself and as I am in relation with everything, to dance with honesty is to feel the tapestry of connection.”
Hailing from the villages of Vailele and Lalomanu in Samoa, Ooshcon is a dance specialist and mentor of young Pasifika and Māori men. The core phrase ‘Ina ia sosolo le alofa / so love may flow’ underpins their practice and emanates throughout their performance, workshop facilitating and mentoring mahi. Their primary tool for expression is the body, specialising in street dance techniques and forms which include waving, Krump, Hip Hop, body control and robot. While Ooshcon has directed, choreographed and performed in international shows that have toured San Diego, Mexico, Hawaii and Tahiti, empowering young Pasifika and Māori men through dance and bodily awareness, remains a strong focal point.
Final Works
Parts 1 - 3
“A big reason why I create at home is because I’ve learnt, from aspiring towards my core belief, that in order for ‘so love may flow’ to genuinely work, the mahi must take place within the body to then take place inside our home and family.”
Ooshcon’s guiding principle, ‘Ina ia sosolo le alofa / so love may flow’, is interwoven into every facet of their practice and into the idea of the Fale-ship itself. For Ooshcon, ‘so love may flow’ manifests as creating in their own home, a familial and intimate space, through the physicality of the body. The home and body become crucial interchangeable sites for accessing a connection with one’s self and a deeper understanding of love and the relationships in our lives, with dance and choreography being the key catalysts in achieving this immersive physical and emotional awareness.
In Ooshcon’s final artworks for their Fale-ship Residency, the artist uses various forms of dance specialisations to reach a state of formlessness, an actioning that Ooshcon refers to as “Freestyle to Freebody”. With all of the final pieces taking place within Ooshcon’s garage and home space, their final performances epitomise their core belief of “ina ia sosolo le alofa / so love may flow”, with Ooshcon accessing every part of their physicality to tap into that broadened experience of love and bodily awareness.
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