FRAMING A BLACK PACIFIC ETHNOSPHERE: Beyoncé and Indigenous Māori Dance Evolution in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Poiyonce is a dance that combined traditional Māori Poi with moves Beyoncé performed in her 2011 music video Move Your Body. Danced by students attending Tāreikura/Māori Arts Academy in Rotorua Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ), this video clocked up over 1.5 million social media views. A media and dance analysis reveals that Poiyonce is not only a Poi meets Beyoncé dance, but it also signifies a Black Pacific ethnosphere in New Zealand. This research explores the role that Black/African diaspora dance and music has in the evolution of indigenous Māori dance. While the dance fusion is fraught with cultural appropriation and commercialization tensions, it also represents a genius indigenous and diaspora cultural convergence.