New national dance company has all right moves
A new company entered the artistic landscape with the announcement of the Auckland-based New Zealand Dance Company.
A new entrant has joined the artistic landscape - the Auckland-based New Zealand Dance Company, which has secured $500,000 a year funding from Creative New Zealand for the next two years.
It has also entered into a three-year sponsorship with Westpac and is developing significant partnerships with the innovative design company Designworks and performing arts venue The Edge.
There are other contemporary dance companies nationwide, with Wellington-based Footnote Dance Company, Auckland's Atamira, Tempo and Black Grace, and Southern Lights in Canterbury.
The new venture has a long-term vision to create a permanent, high-calibre national contemporary dance company which from its Auckland base will represent New Zealand nationally and internationally.
The vision for the New Zealand Dance Company is to be a hotbed of creative collaboration, a place to be artistically brave and exist to present compelling work which moves and inspires a dedicated and growing audience.
The company has been established by two of New Zealand’s most respected arts professionals - executive/artistic director Shona McCullagh and general manager Frances Turner.
McCullagh, who is a NZ Arts laureate, says of the new venture: “The creation of this company contributes to the fabric of New Zealand’s strengthening cultural identity and landscape as we build to provide increasing opportunities for some of our finest dance practitioners and brilliant collaborators to share their artistry with New Zealand audiences.”
Over the last two years during the formation of this exciting new venture, McCullagh and Turner have set out to develop their arts company with business thinking and to challenge the paradigm.
With the establishment of the New Zealand Dance Advancement Trust, an experienced board and an expanding range of generous supporters, they are excited by the possibilities the future holds.
John Daly-Peoples
Tue, 15 May 2012
Tue, 15 May 2012
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New national dance company has all right moves
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