"Heart of Highlands" North Island Tour
EXCITING PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITY FOR NORTH ISLAND SHOWS – AUGUST 2025
A revised version of the highly successful Highland Dance Company of New Zealand show “Heart of the Highlands” will be staged August 2025 in two North Island venues Palmerston North and Auckland. The production is a spectacle of Highland dance, music and song, telling the story of the history of our five Highland dances.
The Highland Dance Company of New Zealand invite highland dancers interested in being a part of this production to apply to join the cast of “Heart of the Highlands”. There are limited spaces, and priority will be given to dancers within the local regions if numbers exceed the spaces available.
Friday 22 August Rehearsals from 4pm onwards
Saturday 23 August Rehearsal with Dance Company in morning, followed by dress rehearsal in afternoon
Sunday 24 August Master classes with Julie Hawke, Robyn Simmons, and Dance Company
Friday 29 August Rehearsals from 4pm onwards
Saturday 30 August Rehearsal with Dance Company in morning followed by dress rehearsals in afternoon
Sunday 31 August Master classes with Julie Hawke, Robyn Simmons, and Dance Company
There will be a Production Fee which will cover all show tuition and rehearsals, and show t-shirt. Sunday master classes are optional with an extra fee applied to attend these.
Production Fees will be Juniors and Intermediates $70; Seniors $100.
Master Classes will be an additional $50 for all ages.
Dancers will be provided with a show t-shirt plus costume accessories which they will wear combined with their own basic black dancewear (details to be advised) for the shows. All dancers will also wear their own kilts for one item.
Application forms are available on the Website, Resources, Downloads and applications close 30 April. Teachers please pass this onto your pupils.
Academy Technical Training course
Summer Fling 2025 Report
The 2025 Summer Fling was held from the evening of Wednesday 15th January to Sunday 19th January at St Margarets College, Christchurch.
There were 180 dancers with many first time entries and lots of families travelling from outside Christchurch to attend.
The tutors were: Lynette Mitchell, Kate Deane, Shelley Easton, Jacqui Seque and Kirsty Allpress (Stretch and choreography.
There were 3 evening workshops including Practcial pilates focusing on building strength for dancers, a practical workshop on the power of stagecraft and presentation, and a General judging workshop.
The Balmoral club awarded scholarships for next year to the following dancers:
Initial - Ella Nortje
Preparatory - Ariana Stevens
Grade One - Ashton Foster
Grade Two - Agnes Buist
Grade Three - Harper McKenzie
Grade Four - Isabelle Aubrey
Grade Five - Sophia Nixon
Elementary - Emily Aubrey
Intermediate - Allie Ward
Advanced - Ruby Tanner
Once again Gail Dodson kindly donated a full scholarship to Summer Fling to the Performers class, this went to Ariana Watkins.
The Katie McDonald Memorial Scholarship donated by Jeanie Borsboom and Cushla Piesse was awarded to Scarlett Watson and the Emily Branje Memoral Scholarship donated by Janine Branje was awarded to Quinn Horrell.
Tauranga Summer School 2025 Report
The Tauranga Highland Dance Summer School was a fantastic success this year. With 43 dancers participating and tutors Mrs Julie Hawke & Miss Brooke Smith, the event showcased great enthusiasm and talent. The programme was divided into 4 dancing groups, 1 performer's dance group, and a large Stretch and Conditioning group. Exam classes covered nearly all Highland exam grades.
The great weather added to the positive atmosphere, and we made full use of the up-to-spec, air conditioned dance studios, ensuring a comfortable and professional learning enivronment. During the dancer's down time, outdoor gazebos provided a perfect shaded retreat, allowing everyone to relax and recharge. The energy and dedication from both our tutors made for a memorable week of dance and learning.
A huge thank you goes out to our wonderful tutors - Julie Hawke and Brooke Smith, for their expertise and dedication, which brough immense value to the four days. Their unwavering work ethic and ability to nurture our youngest dancers whil expertly guiding the older ones made the Summer School run perfectly. Julie, of course, earned the record for the most utterances of the line every dancer dreads: ..... "Just one more time".
By the end of the Summer School, everyone had a 'sore something', a true Summer School measure of success.
BOP Summer School Director
Academy Training Course on Technique (ATTC)
The ATTC is an in depth study of the NZAHND (Inc) Highland and Step Dance syllabuses, conducted in two parts, over two weekends.
Each part of the course will be facilitated by two members of the Technical Committee.
The aim of the course is to give participants greater understanding and knowledge of syllabus requirements by looking at the finer points of exercises, foundation movements, steps and dances as well as musical requirements.
Participants are encouraged to be physically fit, though they do not necessarily have to dance.
After trialling parts of the ATTC for the last two years at conference, we have decided to hold the course over a weekend again.
Date for 2025 - 22nd & 23rd February - Highland syllabus
Cost $250 for the weekend.
Applications for the February course close on 30 December 2024 to the Secretary:
firstname.lastname@example.org with a non refundable deposit of $125. The balance is payable by 30 January 2025.
Executive encourage you to contact the Secretary if you would like to pay by
2025 Summer Fling
Summer Fling 2025 - 16th - 19th January
Tutors: Jacqueline Seque, Shelley Easton, Lynette Mitchell, Kate Deane
See resources, downloads for the schedule, entry details and merchandise order form
2024 Conference photos
Highland Dance Company of New Zealand - Port Arlington - Day 8
Today sees our Company disperse as most of us head for home and a few stay on for a little longer in Oz.
A huge thank you to our dancers who have represented our Academy, NZ highland dance, their teachers, parents and themselves with professionalism and outstanding performances. Over the 3 days of the National Celtic Festival Australia Official at Portarlington our girls each performed around 50 dances with Annabel taking the prize with an astonishing 62 dances! (That didn’t include the rehearsals on Thursday and Friday morning) Amazing mahi by our dancers…girls, you were awesome!
Thanks also to our guest performers, Sara and little Annabelle. You were both stars and added an extra dimension weaving our show together.
Grateful thanks to the parents and family who travelled to support us, we loved having you there to cheer us on and a special thanks to Jenna for all the help behind the scenes.
Thank you to our Academy Exec, Dance Co management team and Raewyn for your assistance, organization and support in making these opportunities available to our dancers.
And finally, sincere thanks to Una, Amanda and the crew at National Celtic Festival Australia for your invitation and hospitality…we had a blast!
Stay tuned for videos of performances still to come!
Robyn and Julie