New Zealand School of Dance Graduation Season 2016

Media Release

For immediate release

31 October 2016

New Zealand School of Dance students Hosanna Ball & Song Teng. Photographed by Stephen A’Court.

The New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD) 2016 Graduation Season promises outstanding performances of both classical and contemporary dance.

The programme combines the efforts of an array of influential guests with the hard work of students and tutors from the School. Attendees will enjoy exhilarating performances featuring a number of premieres and dance works by acclaimed choreographers from New Zealand and abroad.

The Season opens with Meistens Mozart by Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson. He created the ballet as part of San Francisco’s Mozart and His Time Festival on the bicentennial of the composer’s death. The choreography skillfully references the old master and the joie de vivre that comes with youth. A fitting opening piece as we witness the young dancers commence their dance careers.

Highlights of the season include the all-male work He Taonga by Māori contemporary choreographers Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal of Okareka Dance Company. Also, Amber Haines from Australia's Dancenorthhas choreographed a comparably powerful piece Incant for the female contemporary dance students. Amber’s work can be described as experimental and intuitive, and she reflects that she found the process ”a moving experience working with these extraordinary young women”.

UK creative artist Hofesh Shechter's Political Mother adds impact to the programme. Powerful music frames a truly unique dance experience brimming with emotion and gritty complexities. Guest Sam Coren has travelled from the United Kingdom to work alongside the students on this distinctively European piece.

Significantly, the 'ballet twins' Jiří & Otto Bubeníček have visited the School this year to collaborate with the students on a new work for performance. Jiří, the choreographer of the pair, turned to the students for inspiration. He comments “I tried to capture some temperamental qualities of their personalities in combination with their body lines, and of course the layers of feelings in the wonderful Bach music”. Having recently completed a work for San Francisco Ballet, Jiří's choreography will be much enhanced and complemented by his brother Otto's stunning costume design.

Concluding this exciting programme is Tempo di Valse to Tchaikovsky's famous Waltz of the Flowers fromThe Nutcracker. This exuberant and magical piece is presented with a corps de ballet of fourteen women, a joyful and festive finale to the 2016 Graduation Season.

A highlight of the dance calendar, Graduation Season presents performances by the top dance students trained in New Zealand as they prepare to launch professional careers. If you have ever considered introducing family or friends to dance then this is it. Not to be missed!

New Zealand School of Dance Graduation Season

16 – 26 November 2016

www.nzschoolofdance.ac.nz.

© Scoop Media