Kiwi Students Take Flight

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

31 MAY, 2005

Kiwi Students Take Flight

Two students from the New Zealand School of Dance will shortly take up international scholarships to further their studies in America and Australia.

Auckland-born Paul Mathews (aged 18), a 3rd Year classical ballet student, leaves Wellington next month for the United States of America to take part in the Ballet Programme at Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts and also study at the San Francisco Ballet School. The New Zealand School of Dance has had a long relationship with the Jacob’s Pillow programme, where, for the past five years one of the School’s male students has been granted a full scholarship to attend the two-week intensive.

Accepting only 22 students from around the world, this programme features an international faculty, and provides the opportunity for participants to study the choreography, musicality and artistic qualities of repertoire performed on stages worldwide. In previous years, dancers have attended from such companies as New York City Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet and Dutch National Ballet.

At the conclusion of the programme at Jacob’s Pillow Paul will travel to New York to see some of America’s finest dance companies in performance before joining San Francisco Ballet School for a one-week intensive in their professional summer programme.

Originally from Christchurch, 2nd Year classical ballet student Yolanda Beulink (aged 17) will spend two weeks in August attending the Australian Ballet School, on a full scholarship. The scholarship is being offered as part of a tactical initiative that will see the New Zealand School of Dance and the Australian Ballet School - both national schools for professional dance training - working more closely together. Already plans are afoot for the two schools to share the cost of bringing several international guest tutors to Australasia.

Speaking of the two student’s achievements, New Zealand School of Dance Director Garry Trinder had the following to say:

“As the reputation of the School and its training is increasing globally, so are there more and more opportunities for our students to gain international experience. It is a cliché to hear people sum up experiences such as these as ‘life changing’ but, in reality, they are. Accepting an international scholarship is one of the best investments a student can make. They learn so much about themselves while sharing in the vast experience of others.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media