The New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing News Feed

Virginia tattoo blog - day 10

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Sunday 23rd April

We started our day very much as a lazy Sunday with another much needed sleep in, followed by breakfast and a quick waiata practice to get those vocal cords moving.

We then headed off to the Scope Arena to prepare for our final show, where we also managed to fit in some fun “trading” with other performers, and of course maximise photo opportunities for life long memories.

We finished our day with a fabulous team dinner in celebration of everyone’s hard work and dedication over the trip towards our performances. Now heading off to bed before a long bus trip tomorrow!

Keighley and Rachel

Virginia Tattoo Blog - Day 9

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This morning we started the day by walking to our favourite breakfast place Cold Pressed to get our bagels and smoothie bowls. We then walked to the arena for our matinee show for all the very excited school kids.

Half of us then travelled to Mary Calcott Elementary School to perform a broadsword dance, sailors, seann, and Irish reel for the kids. We taught them how to do some simple dance steps and they absolutely loved it!

We then performed our dances at the Hullabaloo festival and performed our last show for the day. Lots of parents were in the crowd and it was nice to see an NZ flag being waved around. We are now recovering from another big day back at our hotel.

Ariana & Mhairi

Virginia Tattoo Blog - Day 8

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Saturday 22nd April

This morning we all had a much needed sleep in before a big day of shopping!
We all got some breakfast and walked to Scope Arena to get picked up and taken to the Norfolk Premium Outlet Mall (a very successful shopping spree 🛍️).

We had a team lunch/dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then headed back to get ready for our second to last show of the trip. We were very happy when the Choir brought us some sweet treats in between our dances.

Due to the rain we were driven home and are now off to bed, getting rest for our final show day!!

Lots of love,
Olivia and Ella ✌️

Virginia Tattoo Blog - Day 6

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Thursday 20th April

It’s the first show day!

Started off today with an early morning for 4 of us to do a tv interview at Scope and then we met the rest our our group at our favourite cafe for breakfast.

Our matinee performance was first up, then half of our group headed off to Suburban Park Elementary for an outreach performance while the rest of us fuelled up and got prepared for the hullabaloo and second show in the afternoon.

We all met back at Scope and got stuck into the rest of our performances. The night rounded off with a reception for Julie, Robyn, and two of our senior dancers.

Ready for another big day tomorrow.

Charlotte and Olivia

Virginia Tattoo Blog - Day 4

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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