Feature Artists Announced for the 2024 WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE

A brave & thoughtful dreamer & mysterious dream maker will guide audiences on a breathtaking journey to a world between worlds in the WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE, with multi-talented performers Sharn Te Pou & Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant announced as headline roles.

They will take the stage with another exciting line-up of feature musicians and aerial artists who will bring this year’s WOW Show to life alongside a wider performance cast of around 100.

Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant is a Taiwan-born Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist. Multi-dimensional in her aesthetic and performance, Nikita is likely best known for fronting psychedelic-pop trio KITA, however her talents extend to theatre and film as an actor, writer, director and composer.

Sharn Te Pou is a composer, singer, dancer, model, and stunt person who has been involved in WOW since 2005, as a model and performer. He had a major role in WOW alongside Estère in 2022, but this is Sharn’s first headline role on the WOW stage.

“The WOW creative team are thrilled to be working with such multi-faceted, mesmerising artists for this year’s original production,” says WOW Executive Creative Director Brian Burke.

“Sharn and Nikita both bring unique and powerful talent that will be woven into an awe-inspiring world by Show Director Malia Johnston and her team. We promise a WOW like never before.”

Sharn Te Pou and Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant, feature artists for 2024 WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE

The other 2024 WOW Show feature performers include Tabitha Dombroski, a New Zealand School of Dance and Germany’s John Cranko Schule-trained ballet dancer who performs all over the world, and Rodney Bell (Ngāti Maniapoto), who is internationally renowned for physically integrated dance – a form of dance which celebrates people with different abilities, which he infuses with his own unique style.

The WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE will also integrate live music in new ways, with multi-instrumentalist Dave Khan and Manchester-based Kiwi violinist Shimna Higgins also taking to the stage.

“Combined with a bold new stage design and the best of performance technology, the WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE will further push live spectacle boundaries while uplifting the very best talent New Zealand has to offer,” Burke says.
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About the Artists

They will take the stage with another exciting line-up of feature musicians and aerial artists who will bring this year’s WOW Show to life alongside a wider performance cast of around 100.

Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant, a Taiwan-born Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist. Multi-dimensional in her aesthetic and performance, Nikita is likely best known for fronting psychedelic-pop trio KITA, however her talents extend to theatre and film as an actor, writer, director and composer.

Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant, the Dream Maker and feature artist for 2024 WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE

Sharn Te Pou, a composer, singer, dancer, model, and stunt person who has been involved in WOW since 2005, as a model and performer. He had a major role in WOW alongside Estère in 2022, but this is Sharn’s first headline role on the WOW stage.

Sharn Te Pou, the Dreamer and feature artist for 2024 WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE

Tabitha Dombroski, a New Zealand School of Dance and Germany’s John Cranko Schule-trained ballet dancer who performs all over the world and who first appeared in the WOW Show aged 10, in 2010, as a child model, then performed a classical solo in 2011 and as an ensemble performer in the Children’s section in 2012.

Multi-instrumentalist Dave Khan, who currently works with the likes of The Veils, Marlon Williams and Reb Fountain, will perform a range of instruments live music on stage. A violin, viola, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and pedal steel specialist, Kahn also plays various keyboard instruments, and many of these will come to life through Dave’s mastery and Eden Mulholland’s composition.

Shimna Higgins (left), Dave Khan (middle), Tabitha Dombroski (right), feature artists for 2024 WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE

Manchester-based Kiwi violinist Shimna Higgins has a decade of experience in playing the fiddle in an array of music and entertainment settings. She has toured extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Europe and China, and performed with an eclectic catalogue of performers and musicians. Some of her most recent performances are with Celtic Illusion, Rhythm of the Dance and Pop-Up Globe.

Rodney Bell (Ngāti Maniapoto) is a dancer and performer internationally renowned for physically integrated dance, a form of dance which celebrates people with different abilities, which he infuses with his own unique style. Having started dancing professionally in 1994, in 1997 he became a founding member of the Touch Compass Dance Trust and currently sits on the now 100% disability-led artistic director panel. Rodney will take the WOW Show to new dimensions, demonstrating unbelievable skills in performance with his wheelchair.