Dance Department News

Our Dance tauira / students have participated in a range of great co-curricular activities this term. Year 10 students and their dance teachers went into town on a Friday night to see STATION at the Waterfront Theatre. STATION is a street dance theatre work by Freshman’s Crew that uses hip hop dance to tell an epic story commenting on the struggles facing many New Zealanders today.

Katie Burton and Dan-Yel from the Unitec Dance Programme visited our studio to share some choreographic tasks and teach a dance to students from Years 11-13. Unitec Dance has some great opportunities coming up, such as Student for a day, and their Winter Holiday Workshop, an experience many of our past students have really enjoyed. This free workshop takes place at DANZA studios on July 15 & 16. Contact Chloe or Sam to register or get more info.

This week we have two outstanding dances being performed at YouDance Festival 2024. Choreography by Year 12 and Year 13 students will be presented alongside NCEA work from a range of schools at the Raye Freedman Theatre. Our tauira are looking forward to meeting people and seeing a range of excellent secondary school dances.

And we have one more trip this term. Year 10s and 11s are going to Tolu, a medley of Pacific dance and the NZ Trio at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre.

We are coming to the end of the course for our Year 10 Dance, Semester One course. These learners have been such an awesome bunch of creatives! They are open to learning, keen to take creative risks, kind and inclusive. If you have taken Year 10 Dance in Term 1 and 2 and want to keep moving forward with your ideas you can join our Thursday Dance Troupe. This group will meet every Thursday from 3.10 – 4pm in TAPAC Studio 2 to continue developing performance and choreography skills with the opportunity to perform in the Junior Arts Festival in term 4.

Coming up in Term 3:
+ Trip to Atamira Dance Company’s Ka Mua Ka Muri – Fri 26 July (week 1) – first in first served
+ The WSCW Dance Showcase – August 18-22
+ Year 13 Choreography (3.1) Show – Sept 8-11