No Bollywood movie is complete without a burst of song and dance. Neither are many Indian festivals like Diwali. Traditionally, the Diwali Festival of Lights is celebrated with performances of Indian classical and folk dances such as bhangra. Now Bollywood is having an influence on these celebrations, which bring in the Indian New Year.Bollywood style of dancing is eclectic, incorporating Indian dance traditions as well as modern and Western dance forms such as hip-hop, ballroom and salsa. The often energetic dance routines of Bollywood movie fame usually feature a glamorous hero and heroine leading a group of dancers all strutting their stuff in unison.

Usually performed to upbeat, a story is often portrayed through the song, gestures and facial expressions of the actors.

As the fan base for Bollywood movies spills outside the Indian community so has interest in this film genre’s exuberant dance form.

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Image courtesy of Asia New Zealand Foundation.

On Wednesday night I attended the launch of the redeveloped NZMuseums website.

The site is run by the National Services Te Paerangi team at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Their vision for the new website is that it will be a global showcase for the collections and activities of New Zealand museums and galleries. It’s a great opportunity to profile museums and galleries and to display their collections to the rest of the world. The new site will also act as a museum directory, an online collection management system and a place for learning and discussion about museum issues and events.

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Last week, the team at NZLive.com celebrated our second birthday. And it’s been a great year for us.

Our traffic has more than doubled this year! So far in 2008 we’ve had 806,421 visits from New Zealanders and international tourists checking out New Zealand culture, compared to just 350,913 visits for the same period in 2007.

Our directory of cultural organisations is growing too. Each month new groups are asking to be listed so that they can enter their events information onto the website for free. There are now over 525 organisations in the directory - up from around 350 at launch.

We’ve also published more than 50 articles about New Zealand culture on the site. From New Zealand Book Month to Music Month, from cycling the Otago Rail Trail to Words on Wheels, from Waitangi Day to Big Day Out, from Auckland to Southland, from sculpture to sport - we’ve got New Zealand culture covered.

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It’s September and it’s New Zealand Book Month!

The aim of NZ Book Month is to support and encourage Kiwi writers to keep creating and to show off their talents to New Zealand readers. The organisers of NZ Book Month say, “Quite simply, the idea is to get more of us reading New Zealand books”.

www.NZHistory.net.nz is celebrating Book Month with ‘30 reasons to love New Zealand books and writing’. The site has a bookcase full of stories and inspiration for each day of the month, from stories of ‘Ponga and Puhihuia’ and ‘Hutu and Kawa’ the Pohutukawa Fairies to a history of The Listener and kids’ favourite Hairy Maclary – all brought to life with great images.

And don’t forget to check out your literary literacy by doing the New Zealand Book Month quiz.

The promise of publication and a $5000 reward for each of the six winners proved a magnet for writers in this year’s Six Pack Competition. Attracting a record 500 entries, the competition and resulting book are a highlight of NZ Book Month celebrated throughout New Zealand every September.

The 2008 winning entries – five selected by celebrity judges, one by the voting public – are announced on Sunday 31 August at the launch of NZ Book Month at Te Papa Tongarewa on Wellington’s waterfront. At the same time, copies of The Six Pack Three containing the six winning entries will hit the book stores.

Now in its third year, the Six Pack Competition is open to all New Zealanders and provides a chance for unknown writers to foot it with the literary heavyweights. In the first year, for instance, 15-year-old student Phoebe Wright was one of the winners – alongside well-known writers Briar Grace-Smith and Brian Turner. And last year, emerging writer Jennifer Lane saw her story in print with one by Charlotte Grimshaw, winner of the fiction prize at this year’s Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Read the rest of this NZLive.com featured article here.