Dancer awarded scholarship to join the Royal NZ Ballet

2 December 2015

Dancer awarded scholarship to join the Royal New Zealand Ballet

New Zealand’s prestigious ballet scholarship has been awarded to 18 year old Georgia Powley, a second year student at the New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD), securing her a place with the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) for 2016.

The scholarship provided by the Todd Corporation is awarded annually to an outstanding graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance.

Geoff Ricketts, Chairman of The Todd Corporation says “Georgia is the 16th Todd Scholar following in the footsteps of current company dancers: Paul Mathews, Katherine Grange and Laura Jones. We are delighted to continue our relationship with both the New Zealand School of Dance and the Royal New Zealand Ballet by providing this opportunity for talented young dancers. We wish Georgia all the best for 2016.”

Another NZSD student, 18 year old Felipe Domingos, a first year student with the school, will also join the RNZB in 2016. RNZB artistic director has offered him a contract after seeing him develop in classes and during rehearsals over the course of 2015.

The New Zealand School of Dance is the official school of the RNZB and as part of this relationship RNZB Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia teaches a weekly ballet class at the school.

“I am very excited that we can offer Georgia the Todd Scholarship. We look forward to giving both Georgia and Felipe the chance to join us in 2016 and watching them develop into accomplished dancers with the RNZB. Nurturing new talents in ballet is an incredibly important part of our work so it is my pleasure to have them on board,” says Francesco Ventriglia.

Gary Trinder, Director of the New Zealand School of Dance says: “We are thrilled when graduates from the New Zealand School of Dance are given the opportunity to launch their professional careers with our nation’s flagship dance company. For most of our classical students, their dream is to dance with the Royal New Zealand Ballet.”

“Both Georgia Powley and Felipe Domingos have proven themselves to be focussed, dedicated and exceptionally talented young dancers, who have bright futures before them. We are all eager to see them reach new artistic heights under Francesco Ventriglia’s careful eye.”

Georgia and Felipe will join the RNZB on 11 January 2016 and head straight into rehearsals for the RNZB festival programmeSpeed of Light – a mixed bill of three larger than life contemporary works that will be part of the New Zealand Festival, Auckland Arts Festival and also tour to Christchurch and Dunedin.

ENDS

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