One Step Beyond Dance Company

One Step Beyond and guests proudly presented

" Nervous Tension" October 2011

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!

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.