One Step Beyond and guests proudly presented
" Nervous Tension" October 2011
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Nervous? No way! One Step Beyond was confident, accomplished and primed for this innovative and exciting evening of contemporary dance. Now in its fourth year the company was really looking good!
With inventive and thought provoking choreography by Janine Parkes, Georgie Goater and Grace Woollett plus OSB company members Gemma Herbison and Joel White, this show was something to rave about!
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This year we invited along some guest performers to join us. Our guests were all groups we have close connections with - in one way or another.
Pointy Dog Dance Company hails from the Performing Arts School based at Tapac in Western Springs. For 15 years until 2004 Marian McDermott ran the ballet programme there and has very fond memories of her time there. It was exciting to see that one of Pointy Dog choreographers’ was Sofia McIntyre who studied ballet here at Marian McDermott School of Dance for many years.
Grace Woollett teaches contemporary dance here at MMSoD and is a previous One Step Beyond company member. She is currently a full time dance student at Unitec. Grace brought some of her fellow dance student classmates from Unitec who performed her chorography "Letting It Slip".

Georgie Goater is a contemporary dance teacher here at MMSoD too. As well as teaching our other teenage contemporary students Georgie teaches OSB along with Janine Parkes. Georgie was working with Kelly Nash who was developing a new work for some of the Unitec students and they brought this work in progress to perform.
One Step Beyond performed a diverse selection of works. Grace Woollett's piece "Nervous Tension" opened the show and really got the audience laughing with its hilarious themes and gave the OSB dancers the chance to show that they can not only dance well - they can also act!

Two of the young company members choreographed works for OSB too. Joel White created "[Dis]connected" - a beautiful neo classical piece for three dancers and Gemma Herbison created "Rosie" a dance with balloons about how imagination will always make you smile and how you shouldn't forget that.

OSB were fortunate to perform excellent works by professional choregraphers, Georgie Goater and Janine Parkes. Georgie's piece "Dig-Take" was upbeat and energetic whilst Janine's piece "Empty" was moving and thought provoking.

About One Step Beyond
Mission Statement
To foster the creative spirit,
inspire and extend a select group of dedicated, committed and talented
teenage dancers so they continue to grow and develop as performers and
choreographers.

Rationale
One Step Beyond was founded
in 2008 to create opportunities for a group of talented, committed and
dedicated senior students at Marian McDermott School of Dance in Torbay,
Auckland. The selected students have studied both contemporary dance and
ballet for many years and regularly attend 6 or more dance classes each
week. Till then these students were limited to the whole school performances
and it was clear that they needed to be extended more and given more performance
opportunities.


The company members are taught
by professionals from the dance community and so far have been fortunate
to work with Katie Burton, Colette Arnold, Julie van Renen, Janine Parkes,
Georgie Goater, Grace Woollett, Zahra Killeen-Chance, Kilda Northcott and Lyne Pringle.
Being part of this company
provides an avenue for these students to develop their creativity, technique
and performance skills. They learn how to create and perform dance works
in a wide variety of community settings both indoor and outdoor. They
learn to create and adapt their work to suit the different audiences and
locations.

Our hope is that
with this extra encouragement and opportunity some of the company members
will decide to further their dance education and enter full time training.Already we can proudly say that several OSB members have chosen to make dance their career and been accepted to study dance full time at Unitec. |
Here at MMSoD The students attend technique
classes in contemporary and ballet most evenings during the week. On Saturdays
they all attend a 1½ hr Intermediate/Advanced level ballet class
and a 2 hour Youth Company session.
The students are all expected
to work very hard in all their dance classes and are encouraged to approach
their dance education in a professional manner.

The official launch of the
company was held at 7.30pm on Sunday August 3rd 2008 at the Torbay Community
Hall. The performance included a diverse programme of works which showcased
the talents of this creative group of young dancers. Three of the company
members choreographed works with expert guidance from choreographic tutor,
Katie Burton. The company also performed pieces choreographed by the company
faculty.
Since then the company has
performed at numerous commuity events including the launch of the new
Shore Space Arts Portal for the North Shore City Council, Tempo Dance
Festival, The Festival of the Roses , Capetown to Cairo Festival , Kingsway
School Gala, The Celebration of Age Show and Carols By the Sea. They performed
as guests of Kilda Northcott and Lyne Pringle in their show Lily as part
of the 2008 Tempo Dance Festival.
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