Choreographer Mario Faumui says his Tempo Dance Festival piece Fine Fitale is all about breaking boundaries, and bringing through a new generation of queens in the heel steps of our local legends. What does Fine Fatale mean to you? Where does your inspiration for it come from? Mario Faumui Fine Fatale is about breaking boundaries, it's going against the norms, it's serving a new generation of "fa'afafine" talent and stomping on the cliche's and stereotypes of what people think about "FINES" (fa'afafine). It was inspired when Amanaki (Co-Choreographer) and I danced for VOGUE dance crew. VOGUE DC was an all 'femme' dance crew that really brought a freshness and something unique to the street hip-hop dance scene. There was a confidence and a boldness like no other crew - our sets blurred and rubbed out the lines between masculine and feminine. And after VOGUE DC stepped off the scene, it was still cool for what it was but it was missing that *ummmppffff* lol and so I wanted to start something just as solid and added a twist of Pacific/contemporary flavour. I heard so many stories about the legendary Pacific queens (Phylesha, Lindah Lepou, Buckwheat, Sha-nay-nay, Cindy and more) who were performing and travelling around the world and I thought well where's all the new generation of queens hiding, so this was something to bring them together and give them a platform to showcase their talents. The fantastic promo video is set behind K’ Rd, why this location? Heaps of people, as well as a lot of my friends and I, identify K Road as the home of celebrating being LGBT; it's like an icon of the community, and it's also the spot of many Pacific Islanders on a Fri/Saturday nights (don't lie now) Tell me about the dance style pacific fusion, and how it allows you to express yourself? It was inspired by choreographer Peter Tamasese who was legendary for creating a dance piece with Mary-Jane McKibbin called "Ufi le manu ua gase", which added a new style to the Traditional Samoan Siva that went from being very fluid to being very being sharp and 'posey'; which kind of had similarities to Voguing and Wacking. Pacific Fusion also allows me to incorporate these 'street' hip-hop elements and also mixing in the many cultures that are represented in 'Fine Fatale' (Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau, Niue, Maori, Cook Islands, China) Can you remember when you were first drawn to dance? And what made you decide you wanted to pursue it professionally? It was watching TLC, Britney, Usher, Justin, MJ music videos back in the days (story of every 90's kid). I just wanted to dance cause it was the coolest thing ever and I always loved being on stage. P.I.P.A (The Pacific Institute of Performing Arts) was the place that had me thinking about how stories can be told through dance and an avenue to express yourself. Tell me about how queen friends have influenced you? My main hustle is writing for a TV show called "Fresh" and also for "thecoconet.tv" webisodes, and so I got to write and direct a few called "The F Word". It's fa'afafine tips about fashion, dance, beauty and all that jazz! The scripts are usually inspired by whatever comes out of my 'queen' friends' mouths who are the true trendsetters of the poly lingo, both in the past and nowadays. What do you hope people take away from the show? A breath of fresh air hopefully or even just something to talk about; whether they get the work or not. If I can get them to start a conversation about it, that's enough. Any message to GayNZ.com readers? WERQ! Fine Fatale plays as part of Tempo Dance Festival’s PACIFIC TRIPLE BILL 19th October 6.30pm at Q Theatre. www.tempo.co.nz for more info. Watch the amazing promo video below: Jacqui Stanford - 17th October 2013