Ta’alili is a performance group led by Aloali’i Tapu and Tori Manley-Tapu, grounded in movement, design, and cultural narrative. Ta’alili refers to the deep rumbling or quake-like echo of thunder in Sāmoan language and is a nod to the intentions and footsteps of the group. Their work is deeply relational, interdisciplinary, and set in the belief of people/artists as an archive, memory, and future.

Ta’alili is both an arts group and a collective home, where artistic contributions and the alofa of its collaborators together with the directors can breathe and live. Ta’alili is a space where ideas shift physical state, transforming from the unembodied into material forms through dance, design, and storytelling.

Based in Aotearoa, Ta’alili holds a strong presence in the independent arts scene. Since 2019, they’ve created stage works, exhibitions, and films including LEECHES, ETENA, Faces of Nature, Concrete Bloom, and MANU MALO. In 2022- 2023, they were resident choreographers at K3 Zentrum für Choreographie (Hamburg), and continue to develop and deliver their long-running movement workshop series, Lofty Lab, most recently through STRUT Dance PERTH MOVES 2024 and 2025 as well as performing excerpts of MANU MALO during STRUT Dance Restore program. Ta’alili’s wider kaupapa includes running Etena Fest, an artistled platform in Titirangi, Tāmaki Makaurau and co-leading pop up training school Undaground Fono with CONJAH. Two initiatives that create space for artists to train, recalibrate, and be in critical conversation. Makers & Creators Choreographers Ta’alili (Aloali’i Tapu & Tori Manley-Tapu).