Taranaki students' collaborative dance takes centre stage at WOMAD NZ

Members of the Tansi Productions dance crew.

Taranaki school students will be making every move count with New Zealand dance royalty at WOMAD NZ, thanks to an innovative community programme.

Members of renowned Royal Family Dance Crew and Taranaki's Tansi Productions are working with the school children before WOMAD, where they will perform a choreographed dance on stage.

The initiative is part of the Todd Energy and TSB Community Trust Community Programme workshops being held in schools ahead of the World of Music, Art and Dance (WOMAD) festival at Brooklands Park from March 13 to 15.

Fifty students from Tikorangi and Huirangi schools (Todd Energy workshops) and 50 teenagers from 10 secondary schools around the mountain (TSB Community Trust workshops) are currently working on a routine supplied by the dance professionals. The students will be adding to it, using their own dance routines created during the workshops.

WOMAD NZ Event Director and Programme Manager Emere Wano says the initiative, Make Every Move Count, draws on WOMAD's inclusion of dance and movement in the festival.

"We're always looking at new ways for dance to be incorporated in the programme. While we have had more traditional dance in the festival in the past, this time we are looking at a more contemporary dance genre.

"Make Every Move Count follows last year's successful Make Every Word Count community programme, which focused on words and the art of songwriting. This WOMAD, we decided to focus on the art of movement and dance as a form of artistic expression."

The format for the community programme has seen students participate in creative interpretation and dance creation workshops with Royal Family Dance Crew members Kyra Aoake and Quinn Prendergast, as well as Tansi Productions.

The final masterpiece – described as a 30-minute collaborative dance journey that explores and showcases the art of movement and dance as a form of artistic expression - will be performed at WOMAD's Te Paepae Stage at 4pm, Sunday March 15.

"This is an amazing opportunity for the young people to be stimulated and engaged in the creative process – something that is only made possible thanks to the commitment and generous support of both Todd Energy and the TSB Community Trust.

"It's also an avenue for WOMAD to engage with our youth by providing tickets to the festival so they are able to experience it first-hand," Emere says.