Faculty
The Principal of the
school is Marian McDermott. In 2010 we welcomed
Janine Parkes and Grace Woollett who teach contemporary dance and Leanne
Powell who teaches ballet. In 2011 we welcomed Amelia Meineke who teaches jazz.
Tutors:
Marian McDermott T.T.C.
Marian McDermott has been teaching
ballet for 23 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".
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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.In 1995 Marian established the "Marian McDermott School of
Dance" in her home suburb of Torbay.
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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.
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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.
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Janine Parkes- B.P.S.A.
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Janine Parkes is a
free-lance choreographer and dance teacher, having completed the Unitec degree in Contemporary dance in 2005. She works extensively with BackLit Productions as a co-founder, dancer and choreographer. BackLit productions shows are critically acclaimed and have received a number of awards and have performed at Dance festivals across the North Island, collaborated with other musicians and artists and also run schools workshops.
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Janine is passionate about sharing dance as an art-form and has taught at various Auckland dance schools including PASNZ and Marian McDermott School of Dance. She currently enjoys choreographing on and teaching the talented One Step Beyond members.
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Georgie Goater - B.P.S.A.
Georgie began dancing when she reached secondary school in Christchurch. She then went to train full-time in contemporary dance at Unitec and gained her bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts in 2006. She then co-founded award-winning dance company BackLit Productions with whom she is working with till this day. Georgie is a freelance dancer and performer in the Auckland community, who has worked for a variety of accomplished choreographers and artists locally, such as Alexa Wilson, Morag Brownlie, Liana Yew, Vospertron, Sweaty Heart Productions, and has had some work in London in 2010.
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This is her second year with the Marian McDermott School of Dance teaching contemporary technique to the level 5 and One Step Beyond students.
Georgie also teaches Pointy Dog Dance Company at PASNZ, and teaches predance for Nikki Marie Dance Academy.
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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. Grace has
a particular interest in choreography and has been invited to choreograph works for OSB. One of her works "Anonymous"
was selected to be performed by One Step Beyond at Tempo Dance Festival in 2010.
Grace began
her teacher training with Collete Arnold in 2009 and in 2010 started
full time at Unitec studying the Bachelor of Performing and Screen
Arts majoring in contemporary dance . This is Grace's third year
teaching contemporary dance for Marian McDermott School of Dance.
Leanne
Powell
Leanne
started ballet at the age of 5 with Marian McDermott, and has now
been dancing for 16 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 is currently a second year student
at the University of Auckland studying biological sciences.
This is Leanne's third
year teaching for Marian McDermott School of Dance.
Amelia Meineke
Back in Germany my husband and I ran a dance school in the northern city of Bremen in which I taught Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, Gymnastics like Yoga and Pilates and also creative dance classes for little children from the age of 4 years. With over 250 pupils we ran the school for almost 13 years with annual shows and different programmes and displays.
I have been trained at the famous Lola-Rogge-School of dance in Hamburg for three years. My passion to dance started at the age of 12 when I had my first dance class at school. From then on I was infected and I attended several different dance schools and classes.
I danced in professional Companies throughout Germany for TV productions, stage, background, independent competitions, festivals etc. For the longest time I was a member of the "Koinzidance" dance company Hamburg in several productions with highlights like the production "Schöpfung" (transl. Genesis) for the world exhibition in Hannover with Giora Feidmann.
My passion for dance is still very strong and so I am excited to now be a teacher in New Zealand at Marian McDermott’s wonderful school of dance.
The New Zealand Qualification Authority has approved Amelia's international qualification for her to practise as a teacher of Level 5 Performing Arts in dance and dance-based gymnastics.
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