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Thank you to all the performers tonight for bringing the energy of dance into the Grand Hall.  You have reminded us how dance is a fundamental form of human cultural expression, a healthy way to spend time, and the source of considerable fitness and long-term health, and a great pleasure for audiences.

As you know, two of my parliamentary colleagues can personally vouch for that after their stint on Dancing with the Stars.

As a government, we do our best to promote all cultural expression through writing, dance, theatre, music and the visual arts, to name a few.  We support these activities through funding from Creative New Zealand, who fund many of DANZ's activities, as well as many festivals around New Zealand, and direct funding to national institutions like the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Te Matatini. These organisations preserve and promote tranditional forms and contemporary dance.

Culture doesn't stand still: Re-assessing those organisations and funding strategies as well as New Zealanders needs has to be an important aspect of the work of any arts organisation.

I would like to commend DANZ for taking on the challenge of finding out where the dance sector sees itself, where it wants to go, and how it wants to go forward.  No doubt the answers have led to many more questions and issues to resolve, but the New Zealand Dance Industry Strategy is a brave and useful start.

The Strategy would not have happened without the participation of people across all sectors of the dance industry.  Perhaps there is increasing understanding that a lot can be achieved when everyone dances to the same beat.

I understand South Island dance practitioners have got together as the South Island Dance Network - another good example of people in the dance sector being ready to work together.

The challenge is to maintain this focus and unity to strengthen dance in all areas, but particularly in education and recreation. 

Te Matatini has strengthened kapa haka through programmes in schools; workshops and master classes; and regional competitions and national festivals. 

These festivals, along with the Pasifika Festival, provide fantastic opportunities to share the vitality and diversity of Māori and Pacific dance forms. Diwali and Chinese New Year have introduced some important new dance influences into the New Zealand scene.

Other regional dance festivals are gathering momentum every year.  This month, Wellingtonians have the opportunity to Dance their Socks Off, Aucklanders will crank up the Tempo shortly, and the kinetic possibilities of The Body will be explored in Christchurch.

Dance is alive and well as long as there is music or song that spurs us to move to a beat.  Perhaps because it is such a fundamental form of human expression, the community has not caught up with the need to support dance to the same extent as rugby or netball.

But this will change. Now that dance is being integrated into education, health and recreation, there will be a new generation of New Zealanders who will see dance in a new way. 

First there are new challenges to meet.  It will take time to train the teachers and develop the resources for all those young New Zealanders who want to study dance at school, and to develop a professional career afterwards.

I'm sure everyone who participated in the forums and questionnaires which led to this Strategy will be keen to see the Action Plan when it comes out.

I am sure DANZ will play a leadership role in the enactment of this Plan.

I am delighted to host the launch of the Strategy, which I hope will herald a new era of strategic thinking and cooperation between organisations working in the dance sector.

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