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

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."

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".

Marian directing photo shoot

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.

Marian McDermott

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.

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.

 

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.

Janine Parkes

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.

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.

Zahra Killeen-Chance

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.

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Emma Lucas

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!

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Michelle van den Bergh

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.

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Grace Woollett

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.

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Leanne Powell

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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"Positively Ballet"

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