MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7 July 2008
Kiwi Dance Icon Joins Nzsd Board
Taiaroa Royal, the most recent addition to the New Zealand School of Dance Board of Trustees
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The New Zealand School of Dance is delighted to announce that Taiaroa Royal has been appointed to its Board of Trustees.
Mr Royal has enjoyed a diverse and successful career as a contemporary dancer and choreographer.
“We are exceptionally pleased that Tai has agreed to join the Board,” says Chair of the NZSD Board, John Ryan. “While we
are a school that develops dancers to the highest international standards, we are conscious that we draw our strength
first and foremost from the New Zealand dance community. Tai is a greatly respected member of that community.”
Taiaroa Royal graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1984. Since then he has worked with many of New
Zealand’s leading dance companies, including the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Limbs Dance Company, Douglas Wright Dance
Company, Human Garden, Black Grace and Michael Parmenter’s Commotion Dance Company.
“I am very excited to have been appointed to the New Zealand School of Dance Board of Trustees,” says Mr Royal. “Having
had a relationship with the School since my graduation, becoming a Board member allows me to impart knowledge from my 24
years as a senior practitioner in the dance community.”
The New Zealand School of Dance, internationally recognised as one of the Southern Hemisphere's leading tertiary dance
institutions, offers two-year and three-year intensive training programmes in both Contemporary Dance and Classical
Ballet. The School accommodates approximately sixty five students undertaking full-time study at any one time and
graduates have found work in companies such as the Royal New Zealand Ballet Australian Dance Theatre, English National
Ballet, Daniel Belton and Good Company, Company C de la B, Zurich Ballet, Rosas, Footnote Dance and the Australian
Ballet.
Director of NZSD, Garry Trinder, spoke with enthusiasm about the appointment: “Taiaroa’s belief in providing quality
education – combined with his sagacious wisdom and diplomacy – will be of great value to everyone at the School.”
ENDS