1. Could you begin by introducing VOU Dance Fiji and its mission? What is your vision for Fijian performing arts, and how does the company share Fiji's cultural identity, creativity and artistic talent with international audiences?
We are a collective of young Fijian artists. Vou is the iTaukei, or indigenous Fijian, word for "new," and the heart of what we do is to create new things. That is why VOU was created in the first place: a space for young people to come together and make work about the things we wanted to talk about.
Before VOU, there were artistic spaces in the country, but most dance practices connected to culture were tethered to tradition, and therefore almost tethered to the past. We wanted a space where we could talk about things that are current, to be the voice of who we are today as young Pacific Islanders from Fiji, with our own context and lived realities, instead of retelling stories that weren't relevant to us.
As we grew, it became clear that there was a natural ability to create and to use dance and our bodies as a medium, but the training and qualifications needed to do that at a higher level were missing from Fiji's education system. So our mission became providing sustainable and fulfilling career paths for young Fijians, which meant creating education pathways.
Today, we live in a world that is increasingly divisive. Our mission in 2026 is to create oneness, to create healing, and to create experiences and spaces where people can come together, blur the lines between them and find each other in the middle ground. We call that a "magic moment." It can be as big as a massive crowd cheering together, or as small as a one-on-one conversation where we share a laugh and learn about each other's lives. Those moments already exist; we want to curate and create them intentionally.
2. Fijian heritage is at the heart of your work. How does VOU blend traditional Fijian dance, storytelling and cultural research with contemporary artistic expression?
This is a very sensitive subject, and I'm sure it is everywhere. The biggest challenge is understanding that heritage, tradition and culture are collectively owned. They don't belong to one person. How we draw on imagery, artifacts, stories, songs or chants, and make them relevant to who we are today, is a process we are still refining.
We have found the edges and the boundaries. We have crossed them before in our history, and it took crossing those lines to understand where the safe space is. There is no written checklist; we tried that, and there is always someone in the community whose feathers you are going to ruffle. So a big part of the process is instinct. As an iTaukei Fijian who grew up here and has been creating work for 14 or 15 years, if something inside me says we are crossing a line, I listen. If I sense a line but believe in the intention, I consult. No two situations are the same.
3. VOU is known for creating original productions with a distinctive Fijian voice. How do you develop work that reflects Fiji's history, its multicultural society and the experiences of modern Pacific communities?
Our work naturally includes elements from across the Pacific region, partly because of the industry we operate in. Tourism is huge here, and a good portion of what we do is connected to it, so our repertoire is not only Fijian. We trained for about three years under a dancer from the Cook Islands, who was one of my teachers.
When you learn a different style, you are forced to learn the language, the music and the stories behind it. The same goes for contemporary dance, ballet, jazz and hip-hop. It widens the lens for us as Fijian artists: we are from here, but we have to open our perspectives to other cultures, and then stage them. When VOU started, we wanted to be a Fijian contemporary dance company. As we evolved, we had to broaden our palette.
4. The Fijian Flying Circus is one of your most innovative creations, combining dance, circus, theater and storytelling. How did it come about, and how has it developed on the international stage?
She is a labor of love, that show. We started creating it in 2023, and it came about almost by coincidence, though we like to believe that things happen for a reason. You can make your plans, and then something else drops into your lap.
Since 2019, we have had a yellow-and-white circus tent, bought from Poland, which served as the home of our shows here at the VOU Hub. We never once thought about doing a circus show. Then, in 2023, two circus performer friends from Cuba spent time with us, joining our classes and shows, and offered to train us in circus. We put two and two together: we had circus skills, and we had a circus tent. So we combined what we know about dance, storytelling and building a narrative with those new skills, and made the Fijian Flying Circus.
None of us had any idea what was ahead. In 2024 we toured it for five months around Fiji, all the way up to Vanua Levu and around Viti Levu, and it did really well. Artistically, it was the next step in our evolution: stepping into a new discipline and tying it to our storytelling. Then we took it regionally, to Tahiti, New Caledonia and New Zealand, and now it is in Australia.
5. Taking Fijian arts to the world is central to VOU's vision. What have your international performances meant for the company, and what opportunities do you see to showcase Fiji at major festivals and cultural institutions, particularly in the U.S.?
Performing internationally is always an honor. For many Fijian dancers, me included, it is one of the driving dreams when you start out. I vividly remember holding a plank in my first year for what felt like five hours, or running five kilometers, and the only thing playing in my head was leaping across stages in London or New York.
Every time we take dancers who have never been beyond Fiji, even just getting on a plane, it validates the path. For a lot of Fijians, choosing to dance is a leap into the unknown. You need a daring, audacious spirit to say, "I'm going to do this full time." Ending up on a stage overseas brings a real sense of accomplishment. And our artists come home with broader perspectives, having seen what the arts can do for communities elsewhere, and are inspired to do the same here.
We have been to the U.S. several times, often alongside Tourism Fiji and Fiji Airways on routes such as Dallas and Los Angeles. Then we were invited to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twice, in 2024 and 2025. We couldn't believe it when we received an email on Met letterhead saying, "We'd like you to come and dance here." For a small company based beside a sugarcane field in Nadi to perform at one of the most iconic cultural institutions in the world was huge. And not only for those who went, but for those training here, who could see it and say, "That could be me." It was for the reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and its Pacific collection, alongside performers from across the Pacific. It was incredible.
6. Nurturing talent is key to the future. What role does the VOU Conservatorium of Dance play in providing professional training, scholarships and sustainable career opportunities for young Fijians?
This is very close to our hearts. The Conservatorium of Dance, which sits under the VOU Foundation, exists because there is a massive gap in our education system. Young people leave school without what they need to survive in the creative industries.
At a time when young people in Fiji face some of the worst circumstances the country has ever seen, with HIV rates at a global high and a drug crisis, offering an alternative pathway into education and careers is not just something lovely. It is urgent. Our scholarships make it accessible to anyone. We hold intakes across Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, bring students to Nadi, provide free education in dance and the performing arts, and then guaranteed employment. Personally, I feel it is a way to save lives.
It began because we needed a pipeline of properly trained people. Developing the curriculum took about five years, so graduates could earn an accredited diploma, work full time as artists, be paid what they deserve and be taken seriously. One of the friends I trained with was living on the streets when he saw the audition advertised in a newspaper. After graduating, he danced in France and Taiwan for two months each and performed at major festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival and Glastonbury. You think about what the alternative would have been for him, and for hundreds of others.
7. You've shown that the performing arts can be more than cultural expression. How can the arts generate employment, support local talent and become a viable economic sector in Fiji?
There is an age-old perspective that the arts are an add-on to a functioning society, an afterthought or a pleasant distraction. But many economies have proven that the creative industries can be a backbone. It's more than the industry; it's the education and the kind of citizens and thinkers it creates. You see it in the infrastructure, in the events, in the lateral thinking that shapes decisions in those societies.
Then you come back to a place where creative education is bundled into one subject, Physical Education, Music, Arts and Creativity, taught once every two weeks as an add-on to the curriculum, and we wonder why young people struggle to form an opinion and defend it. At the Conservatorium, we sit in circles and give each student a moment to say why they are here. The silence can be deafening. Many can only say, "I like dancing because it's fun," without being able to articulate why it matters to them. That reflects honestly on the education available here. So a viable economic sector means the arts not only as an industry, but as part of the education system.
8. Culture and tourism are deeply connected. How can live performance and authentic cultural experiences enrich Fiji's tourism offering and strengthen the country's international image?
Fiji has done this well for many years, although it is a sensitive topic in itself. Had the tourism sector been absent, a lot of what young Fijians know about our culture today would not be common knowledge. The number of meke I know as a young Fijian, I would not have known if I didn't have to perform them in tourism. Tourism gives these traditions a place to survive. That is my argument in the debate over whether culture should be embedded in tourism.
Internationally, what sets us apart is the communal essence of Fijian and Pacific artistic expression. It's not a performance you watch from a distance, with a line between performer and audience. It's one hundred percent "you and I are in this together." I need you to scream for me, and I will go harder for you. That is who we are culturally, and it is a real point of difference that lifts Fiji and the Pacific on the international stage.
9. Looking ahead, what are VOU's ambitions for expanding international collaborations, developing new productions and positioning Fiji as a recognized center for Pacific performing arts?
I love that last line. I think we are well on our way, alongside a lot of work happening elsewhere in the region. We want the Conservatorium of Dance to be recognized regionally and internationally as the leading tertiary performing arts institution of the Pacific. There is none in the South Pacific Islands outside Australia and New Zealand, and the Pacific has so much to offer.
We have been fortunate to perform at festivals and events such as Glastonbury and Edinburgh, and in the U.S., India and Asia, carrying Fiji to other people's stages. What the Fijian Flying Circus has started is the next step: developing our own productions and touring them on our own terms, with multiple touring shows made in Fiji and traveling the world. In Tahiti and New Caledonia, almost no one spoke English, yet inside the big top, humor, sadness, a hug or a high five were understood by everyone. You can feel a sense of oneness without sharing a language, and that brings us back to our mission of magic moments and healing.
10. Finally, what message would you like to share with Los Angeles Times readers about why Fijian creativity, cultural heritage and artistic talent deserve a larger place on the international stage?
No matter who you are or where you come from, the ability and the opportunity to tell your story is so important. For as long as the performing arts have existed, we have heard the stories of a select few people and a select few places. There is just not enough heard about Pacific Island and Fijian stories throughout the world. There should be more opportunities to experience a new culture from the South Pacific in places like Los Angeles, to be exposed to something from the other side of the world, and realize that even though it's so different, we are still the same.
It may be my bias as a Fijian performer, but there is a magic that comes out of Fiji and out of Fijian performance. I have seen it time and again with students who walk through our doors not knowing their right from their left, yet the moment the music starts they know their way around the beat. There is a feeling so welcoming, so endearing, an effervescence you feel when you watch a Fijian performance. You have to feel it yourself to believe it, but there is a magic waiting to be tapped into.
