Samantha Rowe has gone from 'artsy' student to dance teacher

Samantha Rowe at her University of Waikato graduation.

Samantha Rowe has gone from TPHS to JPC - via Waikato Uni.
Te Puke Times caught up with the former Te Puke High School student who is now head of dance teacher at John Paul College in Rotorua.
Ever since she was in Year 8, Samantha Rowe has wanted to be a teacher.

What changed between then and her leaving school was who and what she wanted to teach.

Her time at Te Puke High School was a big influence on that shift, although the seeds for change were sown many years earlier when, as a 3-year-old, she started dancing.

''I wanted to be a new entrants teacher up until mid way through Year 12, but then I decided I really wanted to keep dance in my life somehow, so I did the big switcheroo and ended up being a high school dance teacher instead,'' she says.

Samantha describes herself as a very ''artsy'' student at high school.

''I was arts leader in 2013 in my final year, I took drama and took dance and I was in all the bands and everything, so the arts heavily influenced my life.

''I knew I wanted to do something in the arts and dance was my main passion - I started when I was 3 and haven't really stopped.''

She was also being given leadership roles, not only as arts leader, but also leading groups in dance and drama classes.

''[That] made me realise that teaching was something I was good at.''

There was also another influence at work - teacher Claire O'Fee.

''She really pushed me to think about dance in a totally different way to what I had experienced it before because high school dance and studio dance are very, very different.

''She influenced a lot of my practice now because she helped me to think about dance in a different way, which I try to get my students to do now.''

Samantha still contacts Claire from time to time.

Away from the arts, Samantha also represented the school at hockey, playing goalie for the first XI for five years.

''I was quite young when I started and was trying to be on the field. Then I realised I wasn't good enough to be in the team. They needed a goalie and the pads looked fun, so I put them on and never looked back.''

Ultimately, though, she close dance over hockey.

''Bruises on thigh are not the best look,'' she says.

Before high school Samantha was at Pongakawa School. She left high school with a Waikato University Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship and studied for four years from 2014, graduating with a conjoined Bachelor of Arts majoring in theatre and Bachelor of Secondary Teaching degrees.

A placement at St Peter's School in Cambridge led to her first teaching position and she is now in her second year at John Paul College where she is head of the dance department.

She says she has had no problems with the switch from student to teacher.

''I felt like I led quite a few things anyway, so being up the front feels quite natural to me and I am certainly enjoying imparting all the knowledge I've gathered so far to the students, to see what they can come up with and what they can do.''

Teaching dance hasn't stopped Samantha performing.

While at university she was in Hamilton Operatic Society's version of Mary Poppins and last year played Patty Simcox in Rotorua Musical Theatre's production of Grease.

''I was in the school musicals at high school as a dancer and after that I decided I wanted to try, I guess it's still amateur theatre, but a bit more professional, so I've been involved in musical theatre companies since I left school.''

She has choreographed John Paul College's production of West Side Story and the forthcoming Chicago.

Once travel restrictions are lifted Samantha and her partner Chris Jones would like to head to the UK so she can gain more teaching experience with becoming head of faculty a longer term goal.