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New Zealand Dance News – December 2020

Photo courtesy of Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Photo courtesy of Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Find out what’s happening this month in New Zealand dance news! 

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s (RNZB) popular Tutus on Tour will return to 16 theatres across the country in February and March 2021. In 2021, Tutus on Tour will bring together two classical ballet favourites with two new works which were postponed in 2020. RNZB Artistic Director Patricia Barker says, “We, at the RNZB, feel extremely fortunate to be on stage performing exciting ballets for our audiences. To launch our 2021 season with such a spectacular Tutus on Tour lineup is truly a treat for the dancers and our audiences. The four works being presented are powerful, moving and beautifully crafted, each a shining jewel on their own. Put them together and it becomes a totally stunning evening of dance.” RNZB will present the ‘White Swan’ pas de deux from Swan Lake, Jules Perrot’s Pas de Quatre, Andrea Schermoly’s Within Without and Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Ultra Folly. Tickets are offered at $27-37 for adults and $12-22 for children. For more information, visit rnzb.org.nz/shows/tutus-on-tour-2

The New Zealand Dance Company's movement practice. Photo by Delainy Kennedy.
The New Zealand Dance Company’s
movement practice.
Photo by Delainy Kennedy.

The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC) has a new offering to keep dancers moving for the rest of 2020. Each week, NZDC is releasing one previously recorded Virtual Movement Practice class, which can be accessed as many times as you like during the week for just $10. Stay active with a fusion of contemporary dance, yoga and Pilates — perfect for any experience level. The recordings are up. Head over to nzdc.org.nz, and keep dancing through December.

Due to continued border closures and uncertainty, the International Ballet Workshops (IBW) summer workshops in Auckland will regrettably not run in 2021. IBW looks forward to returning to Auckland again once travel restrictions ease. 

The New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD) has announced that the Toi Pōneke Arts Centre Dance Residents for 2020-21 have been awarded to Otto Kosok and Amit Noy (both NZSD contemporary dance graduates, 2020). The five-week residency is a choreographic project which will culminate in a double bill production at NZ Fringe 2021. NZSD has also announced two new members of staff who will be joining the classical ballet faculty at the start of the new school year — Medhi Angot and Maksim Temnikov. Both appointments will bring high level expertise and experience to New Zealand’s national centre of excellence in dance training.

New Zealand School of Dance students singing their school song at the 2020 graduation ceremony. Photo by Joyful Dance Photography.
New Zealand School of Dance
students singing their school song
at the 2020 graduation ceremony.
Photo by Joyful Dance Photography.

The School recently celebrated the Second and Third year students’ graduation ceremony. The momentous occasion was livestreamed for the first time to family and friends who were unable to join them at Te Whaea. In what has been an extremely challenging year, the school faculty and students felt incredibly lucky to come together and mark this pivotal day that ends the school year.  

It continues to be a busy end to the year for NZSD classical ballet students Tessa Karle, Dane Head and Oskar Temel, who have been performing and touring with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in the company’s season of The Sleeping Beauty, which concludes in Auckland on 6 December.

By Laura Di Orio of Dance Informa. 

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