Virginia Tattoo Blog - Day 4
Tuesday 18th April
day 3
day 3 of rehearsals started off with a bit of a sleep in. Julie had her T.V debut on channel 13, which we are all looking forward to watching later, (link coming out soon, so stay tuned for that.)
Meanwhile, the rest of us continued to practice and perfect our items in the hotel from 11-3, which then gave us some spare time to get prepared for practice at scope, and to have a much needed break.
The Virginia International tattoo kindly provided dinner for all performers tonight at scope stadium which i’m sure we all enjoyed.
The rest of the night was mostly spent on rehearsing the finale with the other bands and performers, along with the sound and lighting which is going to look amazing!! As well as working on the opening act which is our white dragon dance.
-Sophie & Bridie
Virginia Tattoo Blog - Day 3
The team was up especially early for a Sunday morning, arriving at the hotel restaurant for a breakfast experience of a life time, as well as meeting some of the Scots College Pipe Band from Western Australia.
We then headed off to the pristine Norfolk Academy facilities for a busy day of rehearsals and our first run through with the Pipes and Drums live.
It was great to see how enthused the Australians were to be playing the NZ national anthem, they were even whistling it in the hallways.
Virginia’s best van drivers then transported us to the Scope Arena venue for an evening of positioning our items and wowing the show producers.
Neryda, Dawn and Kaitlin :)
Virginia Tattoo Blog Day 2
riday 15th April
We started our morning bright and early, we were all pretty tired as we got to our accommodation last night at 1am. Thank you to Nina and Duffy for our gift bags that we’re waiting for when we got there!
We all walked the streets of Norfolk and found some coffee and bagels before meeting back at the hotel to begin our morning rehearsals.
We finished rehearsing, found some dinner before meeting at the scope arena to watch the Philadelphia ballet perform Swan Lake. The show was amazing and everyone throughly enjoyed themselves!
Now we are off to bed to get some rest before a big day tomorrow!!
Over and out
Annabel and Britney
Summer Fling 2023
January 2023
Summer Fling was held in Christchurch with 170 dancers attending and tutors Kimberley Mavor, Kylie Allison-Miller, Karen Mortensen, Pam Fleming, Kirsty Allpress (Stretch and choreography), Leighton Terry (boys and Irish 2). Pam Fleming and Kimberley Mavor shared the tutoring of the performers class which is for preparation for solo seal.
Scholarship winners were
Initial Quinn Horrell
Preparatory Ilyssa King
Grade One Harper McKenzie
Grade Two Isabelle Costello
Grade Three Erin King
Grade Four Isla Couldstone
Grade Five Meredith Lees
Elementary Grace Duxbury
Intermediate Tara O’Brien
Advanced Pete Greenslade
Tauranga Summer School 2023
January 2023
Tauranga Summer School was held in January with 46 entries, and tutors Lynette Mitchell and Kate Deane.
Scholarship winners were
Harmony Price Beginners
Scarlett Larman U/10
Esther Harry 10 +
Eva Houghton 14 +
Local Asha Jenkins & Tyra Heng
Highland Dance company of NZ - Troupe Awards
Here is the link to the Dance Company's performance at the PACANZ Troupe Awards
<iframe width="560" height="315" src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/UsC0DiDKfzo
Heart of the Highlands - Te Anau Festival Easter 2023
A revised version of the highly successful Highland Dance Company of NZ show “Heart of the Highlands” will be staged in Te Anau in conjunction with the Te Anau Tartan Festival at Easter 2023. The production is a spectacle of Highland dance, music and song telling the story of the history of our five Highland dances.
The Highland Dance Company of New Zealand invite highland dancers interested in being a part of this production to apply to join the cast of “Heart of the Highlands”. There are limited spaces and priority will be given to dancers from the Southland district if numbers exceed the spaces available.
Application forms are available from the website - resources, downloads
Highland Dance Company of NZ - PACANZ Troupe Awards 2022
Members of the Highland Dance Company of New Zealand very proudly represented the NZ Academy of Highland & National Dancing at the PACANZ Troupe Awards (Performing Arts Competitions Association of NZ), in the Regent Theatre in Palmerston North Wednesday 19th October 2022.
85 troupes across all dance genres, performed to an incredibly high standard, with our Dance Company showing such passion and energy in our medley item titled “Red Hot Highland”, which was certainly a real crowd pleaser!
With only 18 troupes announced for the finals, after receiving our reports we learnt we were ranked 19th, so although disappointed not to make the final, we were thrilled to be so close amongst so many outstanding performances.
The Dance Company were most appreciative and would like to acknowledge the Piping & Dancing Association of New Zealand for funding provided for accommodation whilst staying in Palmerston North.
Thank you to our many supporters throughout New Zealand, we were so incredibly proud of our dancers, it was truly an amazing experience to be part of which was very inspiring for us all.
Julie Hawke and Robyn Simmons
