These are reviews commissioned by DANZ.
Interested in becoming a reviewer for DANZ? Contact info@danz.org.nz to register your interest.
See DANZ Magazine Articles
See Other Dance Stories
*The views expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of DANZ or its Board of Directors.
The joy of watching this Royal New Zealand Ballet triple-bill programme, which includes a gem of a ballet by the late, great British choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, lies in observing the company’s dancers revel in and master, the challenges that each work presents. Keep Reading
This heart-felt solo performance of Harrison Cook, who is Kai Tahu, takes viewers along his journey of exploration. Buried within the dancer’s psyche are ancient treasures of memories, stories, sounds, rhythms, movements, smells, sights and spirits of his ancestors. Keep Reading
Te Whaea: National Dance and Drama CentreWellington2 July 2026 Choreographic Mentor: Matte RoffeLighting Design & Operator: Alex DicksonDramaturgical Consultation: Miranda ManasiádiCostume Coordination: Matte Roffe and 3rd Year contemporary students with Anne De Geus Reviewed by Brigitte Knight Top Photo (No.10) - Crop as needed ‘TIME OUT' by Braelan Newman.... Keep Reading
New dance theatre work Mythosoma by choreographer and director Kelly Nash’s collective Body Island – Motu Tinana draws on ConTact C.A.R.E therapeutic practice, somatic trauma theory, and lived experience, in an abstract work that moves between humour and deep solemnity. In the Te Whaea complex, Newtown, new festival venue Tāwhiri... Keep Reading
Billed as one of the headline acts for Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2026, Gloria – a Triple Bill, a trans-Tasman collaboration between the New Zealand Dance Company and Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia, is a cohesive, varied, and rewarding evening of contemporary dance. Choreographer and Artistic Director... Keep Reading
A/MOTIONS’s debut work is a well-deserved and potent inclusion in this year’s Fringe Festival. It is enveloped in symbolic layers of meaning. Choreographer Aylin Atalay weaves her Turkish-and-Pakeha heritages into a veritable carpet of female wisdom, uplifting joy, camaraderie and spirited interdependence. It is danced across the breadth... Keep Reading
St James Theatre Wellington 25 February 2026 Choreography: Alice Topp Music: Christopher Gordon Set & Lighting Design: Jon Buswell Costume Design: Aleisa Jelbart Dramaturgy: Ruth Little Conductor: Hamish McKeich String Ensemble: Musicians of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra A Co-Production with West Australian... Keep Reading
The packed Civic Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau gave a rousing welcome to Black Grace dance company’s Artistic Director and Choreographer Neil Ieremia, as he opened the show with an appreciative speech that celebrated the company’s thirty years in the business. Keep Reading
The New Zealand School of Dance Performance Season 2025 returns to a split stream format, with alternating classical and contemporary dance programmes each providing a full evening’s entertainment. Formatting the season in two parts gives time for the dancers to showcase their skills through the presentation of works by a variety of... Keep Reading
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2025 winter season Home, Land and Sea presents a triple bill of two neoclassical ballets and one contemporary dance created alongside The New Zealand Dance Company. The Way Alone by Australian choreographer Stephen Baynes, Chrysalis by RNZB Soloist and Choreographer in Residence Shaun James Kelly, and Home,... Keep Reading
The New Zealand School of Dance presents How Long is a Piece of String?; nine works choreographed and performed by the nine third year contemporary stream students, curated into a cohesive production overseen by choreographic mentor Holly Newsome and dramaturg Miranda Manasiádi. Keep Reading
St James Theatre Wellington 30 April 2025 Conductor: Hamish McKeich, Orchestra Wellington Reviewed by Brigitte Knight The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s double bill of The Firebird with My Brilliant Career presents two one-act narrative contemporary ballets, both innovative and thoughtful, yet refreshingly contrasting in style. Braving a... Keep Reading
Concluding their three-centre tour in the capital, a collaboration between the New Zealand Dance Company, New Zealand String Quartet, and Chamber Music New Zealand presents 100 Winds Taupō Hau Rau to a capacity audience at Te Papa's Soundings Theatre. Set to the minimalist music of American composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, the... Keep Reading
Unusually for a dance performance there is a long queue to a bag check before the general audience can enter the Auckland Town Hall for Black Grace’s;This is Not a Retrospective (VIPs and patrons are ushered through without queueing and guided to preferential seating in the venue’s balcony). Keep Reading
Fifty years ago when Scottish Ballet last performed in New Zealand it was billed as the farewell tour of Dame Margot Fonteyn. To partner her in the Romeo and Juliet pas de deux was Valery Panov, a Russian Jewish refusenik. I attended that packed performance at the Wellington Opera House, was deeply moved to see Dame Margot, and overjoyed at... Keep Reading
DANZ