Faculty
The Principal of the
school is Marian McDermott. In 2009 we welcomed Emma Lucas who teaches
jazz and Michelle van den Bergh who teaches ballet. In 2010 we welcome
Janine Parkes and Grace Woollett who will teach contemporary dance and
Leanne Powell who will teach ballet.
Tutors:
Marian McDermott T.T.C.
Marian McDermott has been teaching
ballet for 21 years so far! She began her ballet training at the age of
eight. She studied in Wellington, attained an advanced level in ballet
training and went on to perform both ballet and contemporary dance. She
was a founding member of Wellington based "Footnote Dance Company."
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Marian also trained and worked as
a Primary School Teacher and has found this training helpful in her lengthy
ballet teaching career. She
taught ballet for Deirdre Tarrant and at the "Limbs Dance School".
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In 1990 she established the highly
popular community ballet programme at "The Performing Arts School
of New Zealand". Marian finally reluctantly finished teaching at
The PAS at the end of 2004 to concentrate on her ever growing Torbay dance
school.
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In 1995 Marian established the "Marian
McDermott School of Dance" in her home suburb of Torbay.
Marian
has developed a unique and inspiring teaching approach, which she demonstrated
at a major International Dance Conference in Canada in 2000. Her
lecture/demonstration "The Benefits of a Positive Teaching Approach
in the Ballet Class" was acclaimed as ground breaking.
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Upon returning to New Zealand she
somewhat unexpectedly became the focus of much media attention regarding
her work.
Each year Marian works hard
to produce entirely original and very creative ballets for her ever growing
school giving all the students an opportunity to perform on stage in ballets
designed specifically for them.
In 2008 Marian established
One Step Beyond Dance Company, a youth dance company, to cater for the
needs of her most dedicated and talented senior students.
*** Beach Photo of Marian by Luci
Harrison
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Janine Parkes- B.P.S.A.
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Janine began her dancing
life at five years old, attending ballet classes in Christchurch.
From there she want on to take Hip Hop and Jazz classes and eventually
to study Contemporary Dance full-time for four years: One year at
Hagley Community College in Christchurch and three years at Unitec
in Auckland, completing her BPSA in Contemporary Dance in 2005.
She is now a free-lance dancer, choreographer and dance teacher.
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Janine
is a founding member of BackLit Productions who have put on five
major shows in both the Auckland Tempo Festival and Wellington
Fringe since 2005. Highlights of her career so far have been:
Choreographing and performing for the many Backlit Productions
shows and events, being a selected choreographer for the 2007
Generation Project at The Edge and having performed in three 'Late
Night Choreographers'. Alongside dancing and choreographing Janine
teaches Aeroballet at Les Mills and works at Award-winning Fearon
Hay Architects.
Janine
also teaches children and teenage Contemporary Dance at PASNZ
and Marian McDermott School of Dance.
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Zahra Killeen-Chance
Zahra
Killeen-Chance graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance
with a three year Diploma in Dance Performance as a Contemporary
Major, in 2008. In 2009 she choreographed and performed in 'Pace'
for the Auckland Fringe Festival and re-staged 'Pace' for Fresh
Cuts in the Auckland Tempo 09 Festival. Bernadette Rae said of
these performances in the NZ Herald October 12, 2009, "In
the sustained balances dancer Zahra Killeen-Chance was riveting
to watch.
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She appeared in her
own work (jointly created with Alysha Firbank) 'Pace', and confirmed
her considerable talent." She also co-directed, choreographed
and performed in 'Rule and Exception' for the Dance Your Socks Off
Festival at Bats Theatre in Wellington. Jenny Stevenson said of
this performance on Theatreview, September 9, 2009, "Killeen-Chance
creates an outstanding solo." She has also choreographed, edited
and performed in her dance film 'Elbow Room' which was screened
at the Dance on Film program in Tempo 09.
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In collaboration with
Emily Campbell, Zahra choreographed and performed heel ruby in the
Dunedin Fringe Festival 2010. They recently re-staged this work
as ruby in Works In Progress at Galatos and in Platform at KMC,
Auckland. Zahra recently has been an interpreter for Tino Sihgal
in the Auckland's Fourth Triennial at St Paul Street Gallery. Zahra
is collaborating with Emily Campbell on a due for Tempo Festival
2010. She is also currently studying for her Post Graduate Diploma
in Dance at the University of Auckland.
Emma
Lucas
Emma started
ballet with Marian at The Performing Arts School in 1993 when she
was 5 years old. When she was 14 she started Jazz and Tap and began
sitting exams in the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing syllabus.
In 2008
Emma successfully passed her Advanced One Modern Theatre (Jazz)
exam and currently training for her teaching qualification, the
Modern Theatre Associate, this year. She also started Ballroom and
Latin and Contemporary all of which she thoroughly enjoys.
Emma attended
Selwyn College where she took part in a total of 7 musicals.
When she
is not dancing Emma is at The University of Auckland working towards
a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science conjoint degree majoring
in media and geography. She is really looking forward to the teaching
experience in her 17th year with Marian!
Michelle
van den Bergh
Michelle
started ballet at the age of six at a local ballet school in South
Africa. She went on to attend the University of Cape Town Ballet
School and competed in annual eisteddfod competitions. She also
sat RAD exams until pre-elementary level.
Michelle immigrated
to New Zealand with her family in 1999. She studied jazz and tap,
sitting various exams, and began ballet again in late 2003. Now
in her eighth year with Marian, Michelle has been attending regular
advanced ballet, pointe and partnering classes over the years and
has thoroughly enjoyed being involved in the wonderful annual shows.
Alongside her passion
for dance, Michelle is also an Occupational Therapist and has been
working at Wilson Special School since 2006. She also learns circus
aerial silks at the Performing Arts School of New Zealand.
Michelle began teaching
some ballet classes in 2008 and has enjoyed teaching regularly since
2009.
Grace
Woollett
Grace began
attending ballet classes as a four year old at Marian McDermott
School of Dance. She continued learning ballet from Marian until
she reached an advanced level. Grace became interested in contemporary
dance at around the age of 10 when she began taking classes with
Katie Burton, also an ex student of the school and an accomplished
choreographer.
Over the
years, as well as ballet and contemporary Grace has studied jazz
and hip hop with contemporary being her first choice. She was a
member of One Step Beyond Dance Company from 2008-2009. This year
she has been invited to choreograph a work for the company.
Grace began
her teacher training with Collete Arnold in 2009 and this year started
full time at Unitec studying the Bachelor of Performing and Screen
Arts majoring in contemporary dance . She is very excited to teach
contemporary for Marian McDermott School of Dance this year.
Leanne
Powell
Leanne
started ballet at the age of 5 with Marian McDermott, and has now
been dancing for 14 years.
She has been involved
in all the various classes Marian has offered including pointe,
advanced ballet , partnering and stretch.
As well as the numerous
dance classes Leanne attends, she has been accepted into Auckland
University to study biological sciences, where study will commence
early this year.
Leanne has been training
with Marian to teach ballet over the past two years and this will
be her first year with her very own class.
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