Outstanding Feet Show & Hagley Dance Company Success!

On Thursday 20th September, Kaiapoi High took part in ‘Outstanding Feet’, a long-standing Christchurch dance community event that celebrates our local high school dance students' choreographic work. This event is held at Christchurch YMCA’s beautiful Papa Hau Theatre and organised and presented by Adam Hayward (Arts Projects Manager). This is an amazing and valuable opportunity for Canterbury high school dancers to share their creative work with our dance community, without competition, at a professional venue and with the support of friends and family as we all acknowledge the amazing art our young people have produced through dance.

This year, one of our Year 13 dance students, Toni Imbrolio, presented her Level 3 Quote Choreography with dancers Lenuschke Taube (Year 9 KHS student) and Imke Koekemoer (Kaiapoi teen who attends Unlimited). Our Level 3 choreographies this year were based on and inspired by a dance quote chosen by the student choreographer and requires the student to create a structured dance work that communicates their intended idea. Toni chose the quote by Abraham Lincoln, “Thousands of emotions well up inside me throughout the day. They are released when I dance” and formed a concept around a person struggling with their shifting emotions and being shown different ways to cope. Toni and her dancers presented a dynamic and compelling choreographic work, showing abstract ideas and complexity of movement. Toni and her dancers all performed excellently, with strength, control and movements imbued with emotion. I am also so pleased that Toni could bring together friends from our Kaiapoi community as her dancers, despite their differences in age and even attending different schools.

Also present at Outstanding Feet was Naressa Gamble, creative director of Hagley Dance Company, who not only praised Toni’s choreography and performance, but also informed me that Toni had organised to audition for Hagley Dance Company 2019!

The Hagley Dance Company is a full-time dance course in Christchurch, taught by leading New Zealand choreographers and dance professionals, aimed at students wishing to take their dance training to the next level and prepare for tertiary study. Toni had attended ‘Hagley Dance For-A-Day’ earlier in the year, which is a part of the Dance Ambassador programme run by Adam Haywood, and offers Year 13s the chance to experience a day in the life of a Hagley dancer. Toni thoroughly enjoyed Hagley Dance and has since performed a fresh, original solo for her audition and been accepted as a member of Hagley Dance Company 2019! Congratulations on your well-deserved success. I couldn’t be more proud and am very much looking forward to Toni returning to Kaiapoi High next year as a member of Hagley Dance Company, running dance workshops with our students and teaching them her ‘High Schools Tour’ choreography.