Wai Company’s movement vocabulary and discipline draws from Modern Dance, Aerial Dance, Physical Theater and Hula. The company is also greatly influenced by Hawaii’s native cultural practices and eastern philosophies of Buddhism and Yoga.
Wailana Simcock, Founder and Artistic Director, first received his training in dance and movement as a nationally awarded figure skater at age 12 in an ice-skating competition in Detroit, Michigan. At age 22, he embarked on his professional career as a modern dancer for cultural activist Pearl Ubungen of Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians, in San Francisco, CA in 1997. He later became Pearl’s principal dancer and traveled all over the mainland US and to the Philippines where he had the opportunity to also work with this Filipino cultural icon and composer, Joey Ayala. While in San Francisco, he danced with other innovative companies like Steamroller and Kunstoff. He studied with Joe Goode, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Stephen Pelton, Barbara Dilley (SF, NY), and Aerial Dance with Terry Sendgraff. Upon his return to Hawai‘i in 2000, he joined with the remarkable Iona Dance Theater, Tau Dance Theater, Giingko Maraschino, and the aerial dance troupe Samadhi Hawaii. He has also performed with the groundbreaking productions of ‘Ulalena (Maui) and Waikiki Nei (O’ahu).
Designing a unique multidisciplinary degree at the University of Hawaii at Hilo titled “Culture and Performance in Contemporary Hawaii” (2006), Simcock merged Hawaiian language, culture, and ethos with western theater arts. He continued with this focus in his participation with the unique N2 Dance program (Maika and ‘Ānela Woods) in the honorable Hawaiian Immersion school Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u (K-12) where he taught western dance theater constructs in the Hawaiian language exclusively.
Simcock recently received his Master in Fine Arts in Dance degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in May of 2016.
