You may recognise Ngāpuhi descendant Kaea Pearce from the New Zealand dance film “Born to Dance” or the latest Justin Bieber dance video for his song, “Sorry”. But if you thought things couldn’t get any better for the dancer, you would be wrong.
Pearce has had a busy schedule to say the least, having travelled on an international tour with world champion dance crew, The Royal Family.
Photo: EB Photography
But new opportunities just keep rolling in for the 18-year-old.
Dancing for Bieber was a dream come true for Pearce. She says, “I think it's pretty cool cos when we first filmed it we didn't think it would be this much of a big deal so yeah it's just buzzy seeing it get so many views and heaps of people loving it. It' s cool that I was able to be a part of it. The whole video was last minute so Parris just like chucked in anything colourful in these suitcases and then we got there and just chucked anything on us. It wasn’t planned, we thought we looked crazy, we thought we looked weird. But everyone seems to like it.”
Photo: YouTube / Justin Bieber
Dancing runs in the Pearce family, with her younger sister Ruthy also showing off her sassy moves in Bieber's clip.
“We both kinda started together. She was about 9 or 10 and I was about 12.”
For many aspiring dancers, things couldn’t get any better than dancing for pop superstar Justin Bieber. But as it turns out, that was only the beginning for Pearce who is set to perform on an international stage once again, but this time bigger and better.
On November 12, Pearce flew to America ahead of her latest gig, to perform alongside Jennifer Lopez herself at the American Music Awards (AMAs).
When asked how she landed such an amazing opportunity she said,“Parris is choreographing her (Jennifer Lopez) opening and then JLo just asked her do you have any girls that you think will like, kill it? So she called up her request girls and then we just said yeah we’ll come! And that's pretty much how it happened. The AMAs are on the 22nd (23rd in NZ) and yeah we get there and have the first day off then we get straight into rehersals.”
While in the States, Pearce also attended Justin Bieber’s sold out show at the Staple Center where he launched his new album and short film titled, “Purpose: The Movement”.
Pearce says, “Parris directed and choreographed the whole thing alongside Justin. We did some gangster stuff, everything is pretty different.”
Kaea and Ruthy Pearce are also set to feature in a new show on Māori Television called “The Palace”.
The show will give viewers an inside look into the lives of the sisters, as well as internationally renowned choreographer Parris Goebel, and brothers Michael and Joseph Metuakore.
While Kaea Pearce has gone from strength to strength at such a young age, what more could she possibly want to achieve?
She says, “My ultimate dream, second is to dance for Rihanna and my ultimate dream in to dance for Beyonce!”