2022
Wanaka Festival Commission 2023 – Cho. Loughlan Prior
$15,000 – Supported by the Auckland En Pointe Patrons
RNZB Artistic Director Patricia Barker commissioned Loughlan Prior to create a brand new 30 minute piece for the Wanaka Festival of Colour in 2023. The RNZB are so excited to have the opportunity to return to this festival and to provide this audience with a very special premiere.
Musical Moves 2022 (Dance Workshops with live musicians featuring NZ Composer Claire Cowan)
$8,000 – Supported by the Auckland En Pointe Patrons
August 2022 around RNZB’s Cinderella, in Auckland and Wellington
A unique opportunity for intermediate and secondary school students in Auckland to experience and understand the special working relationship between music and dance. Included in this package is a curriculum-linked workshop with an RNZB Dance Educator, accompanied by a group of musicians from the Auckland Philharmonia, and tickets for a current production.
Given the support received from the Auckland EPP’s towards Claire Cowan’s spectacular new score for Cinderella, this will be the musical focus of the project. Claire Cowan will share her experience and expertise in characterisation through music, for dance. The $8K donation means that this programme will be FREE for the 100+ students taking part – it would cover the music arrangements for the musicians, and fully subsidise the ticket of the students attending the ballet performances in addition to helping with the dance educator’s travel expenses.
Ballet in a Box
$9,000 – Supported by the Auckland En Pointe Patrons
Performance dates: Monday 15 & Tuesday 16 August, 2022.
Three FREE Ballet in Box events and Dance Workshops, consisting of one Relaxed Performance also Sign Language interpreted, one performance in Te Reo Māori and one in English. This programme also includes some FREE dance workshops to low decile schools and Adapted Dance Workshops for disabled children.
Ballet in a Box is a one-hour, free performance for school students, introducing them to the world of ballet with classical and contemporary dance highlights, and an entertaining and informative commentary by an RNZB dance educator. This partnership with the Vodafone Events Centre and low decile schools in South Auckland will provide performances and workshops for a range of young audiences. Reaching under privileged school students and children with disabilities who may not previously had access to our performances, this project is an important component of the RNZB accessibility programme.
RNZB Return to the St James – capital refurbishment project:
Digital Editing Suite
$10,000 – Supported by S Coster, Rosie and Mark Dunphy and Jo and Terry Gould
The RNZB cannot wait to return to the St James in August 2022 for the opening night of Cinderella on 3 August – it will be a fitting occasion to mark their return home.
There are many facets to the upgrade, but an innovative and necessary new element in today’s world is the creation of a bespoke editing suite, which will connect our artists to audiences globally and professionally via state of the art equipment and enable the creation of digital dance content as an artform.
Enhanced changing rooms and facilities for the dancers
$23,700 – Supported by the Wellington En Pointe Patrons
The refurbishment will double the space, and number of showers and toilets in each changing room that were previously available to the dancers. This will vastly improve the functionality of the dancers’ daily working lives in a tangible way. The RNZB has outgrown the existing facilities, and is now a Company that needs to house 40 dancers comfortably. There will also be additional bathrooms added between studio two and three for increased convenience for dancers, artistic staff and studio visitors. The new design and increased facilities will also allow more supporters at studio events and insight evenings.
DANCE WITH ME Residency, Auckland
Supported by Andy Coster
A collaboration with the Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau involving 100+ students from 3 to 4 schools low decile schools in the Auckland Region:
Prospect School (Decile 2)
Redoubt North School (Decile 2)
Stanhope School (Decile 4)
The project is a series of weekly dance workshops delivered by two RNZB Dance Educators scheduled in the second half of 2022 culminating in a shared performance on stage of the Vodafone Events Centre. Free to all the participants.
Royal New Zealand Ballet Foundation Scholarship
Supported by Anonymous
This Scholarship supports a young Kiwi dancer at the Royal New Zealand Ballet as they work to realise their potential in this most demanding of professions. The Royal New Zealand Ballet Foundation Scholar sits alongside the two Friedlander Foundation Scholars and the long-standing and prestigious Todd Scholar, expanding the pathways available for talented young New Zealanders to pursue professional careers in dance in Aotearoa.
The 2022 Royal New Zealand Ballet Foundation Scholar is Monet Galea-Hewitt.