It was a wonderful start to the Dance Department’s year with full Year 10, Year 11 and Senior Dance classes (while managing to maintain a healthy spattering of gentlemen too!).

The Dance Department once again had the amazing opportunity to learn from the inspiring Pagan Dorgan from Royal NZ Ballet, who visited KHS on Thursday 22nd March to run a two-hour contemporary ballet workshop with Years 11, 12 and 13 Dance students. During the workshop, she taught us all excerpts of choreography from the touring show The Piano, choreographed by Jiri Bubenicek. This was an awesome opportunity to work with a professional dancer and tutor from the New Zealand Dance industry and an extremely enjoyable experience. Ms Dorgan really enjoyed our workshop too and made special comment about our students' energy, focus and obvious love of dance.

This was followed up by a trip to the ballet that very evening. The Senior Dance classes donned their spiffiest outfits and met at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch to experience the Royal NZ Ballet performing The Piano ballet. This moving and impressive work was in a word, amazing. The show was awe-inspiring, generating fresh ideas, excitement and passion in our students. It was particularly special to see the dance excerpts we had been taught the previous day performed brilliantly on stage by a professional company. We were also very pleased to have 10 parents, a sister and three friends join us for this unforgettable experience.

Miss Kate Hamilton

“25 years ago, cinema goers around the world were captivated by an extraordinary tale of desire, violence and hope. The story of Ada McGrath and her daughter Flora, husband Alastair and lover Baines unfolded against the wild grandeur and desolation of Aotearoa, as Jane Campion’s award-winning film took audiences on a visceral journey into New Zealand’s imagined past, as it had never been portrayed before.

Drawing on the rich inspiration of The Piano, the Royal New Zealand Ballet is honoured to stage the world premiere of this new full-length dance work by Jiří Bubeníček. Originally conceived as a short work for Dortmund Ballet, The Piano: the ballet is now re-imagined and expanded for the RNZB, giving Ada’s story a new and distinctively New Zealand voice and, in dance, a powerful new means of expression.”