Reviews: Graduation Season 2019

The show is incredible. From musical choice to choreography to performance, it is a brilliant achievement in expression an emotion from established students to the up-and-comers.
As P.T Barnum said “Always leave them wanting more.” – The Wellington App

Wellington, NZ. 19.11.2019. Velociraptor, from the New Zealand School of Dance’s Graduation Season 2019. Choreography by Scott Ewen. Rehearsed by by Paula Steeds-Huston and Victoria Colombus. Te Whaea Theatre, Wellington. Photo credit: Stephen A’Court. COPYRIGHT ©Stephen A’Court

A thrilling line-up of works that don’t disappoint! This is what the New Zealand School of Dance’s Graduation Season 2019 delivers. A diverse range of classical ballet and contemporary dance works, choreographed by acclaimed New Zealand and international artists.

Susan Bendell from Dance Australia wrote that classical ballet students “showed great presence with crisp, well-defined work” and contemporary dance students performed with “maturity and polish”.

Dierdre Tarrant said she “left the theatre in admiration of and exhilarated by the talent from all concerned”, while Bridgette Knight wrote “a great variety of choreographic offerings, ensuring the audience are thoroughly entertained during the performance”. These Theatreview reviews can be found here and here.

For more photographs of Graduation Season 2019, visit our Gallery

Lizzie Murray from Art Murmurs‘ review opens “Power, grace and creativity shine as part of this year’s New Zealand School of Dance Graduation Season…Together the pieces deliver strong bonds on stage and with the audience. Graduation 2019 promises a crisp glimpse into each students’ bright future in dance.”

We also appreciated the reviews from Jennifer Shennan (MichellePotter.org) and Tania Kopytko (from DANZ). The understanding that NZSD is preparing these talented young people for professional careers in dance, and that “Graduation season always displays the talent and enthusiasm of graduating dancers “.

The School is proud to present a varied programme of classical ballet and contemporary dance works that challenge our students to explore and push their edges and in-turn invites the audience to do the same. The season must end on 30th November. Only a few seats are left – book your seat now.

Review| Not Odd Human | Tempo Dance Festival

…The 3rd year contemporary students of the New Zealand School of Dance, perform with grace, comedic attention, intelligence and aplomb. Their voices are just as grounded and eloquent. Verbal offerings, pitched at the beginning (prologue), middle and end (epilogue) of the work provide the rhetoric and darker elements of the narrative. “

Felicity Molloy for Theatreview
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Reviews | ORBICULUS Choreographic Season 2019


“But the dancing itself, which is primarily what we’re here for, is beautifully modulated and impeccably performed. All these performers can expect to find professional careers and good work somewhere. One is an absolute knockout and would score a job tomorrow in many a company worldwide.”

Michelle Potter on Dancing
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“Congratulations to the Contemporary dance staff of the NZSD under the leadership of Paula Steeds-Huston and to Season Director Victoria Colombus. Their young dancers are exciting and excellent! The teaching at our national training school gets better and better.”

Theatreview
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“Watene’s piece touched me the most. It begins with audio from a collection of conversations in te reo Māori with a feature of E Papā Waiare. It sounded like audio from a home movie and as I am bicultural, hearing a language other than our dominant English took me straight back to some of the films my grandmother took of us as children. This emotional core remained throughout ‘Pāpā’ as Courtney Mae Lim begins in a soft circle of light, and a bench is brought for the remaining dancers to sit on upstage, emphasising my interpretation of a home movie.”

Art Murmurs
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Photos by Stephen A’Court