Liftoff!
A Special Youth Engagement Programme Matinee

In addition to the Language of Living season, the company is also offering a dedicated youth engagement programme entitled Liftoff!

A partnership with Kowhai Intermediate School sees 20 children take to the stage along with the NZDC Youth Company, our own dancers and special guests from Auckland secondary schools performing a dynamic programme of short works that include excerpts from the Language of Living launch performance as well as live music by The Electric Boutique and the NZTrio.

NZDC Artistic Director Shona McCullagh and company member Tupua Tigafua have worked over several months with the students at Kowhai helping them to create their own choreographic language, celebrating identity through their own personal connection with community, whanau, culture and passion. Best We Can Be set to music by Trinity Roots, is a unique work inspiring our youth, to be courageous in their individuality through the transformative power of dance.

This new work will be featured alongside works from the NZDC’s Language of Living season, including Justin Haiu’s quirky and comical solo work Release Your Robot and Sarah Foster Sproull’s intriguing group work Human Human God.

Our Youth Engagement Programme is an important part of our crusade to communicate the power of dance and its ability to transform young lives. The New Zealand Dance Company is proud to share the stage with some of New Zealand’s most talented and inspiring young dancers in a diverse, high energy performance.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE and TICKETING INFORMATION:
ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre
Saturday 11 August 2.00pm
Premium $ 35.00
A Reserve $ 25.00
B Reserve $ 15.00
Access $ 10.00 children 18yr under, school groups

Tickets on sale Friday 25 May available through; www.buytickets.co.nz and Ph: (09) 357 3355

After the conclusion of the Super Rugby Semi-Finals the Chiefs and Sharks have been confirmed as the 2012 Super Rugby Finalists.

This means that the seventeenth Super Rugby Final will be played at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton,with the Chiefs hosting the Sharks on Saturday 4 August 2012

Click Here to visit the Chiefs Website

Zirka Circus is New Zealand’s first completely new circus in many years and the first contemporary circus to be owned and operated here by a woman! Owner/manager Jeni Hou’s family has been in entertainment and circus for 3 generations.

Zirka Circus is commited to bringing a fresh and exciting new look to circus in NZ! You will be amazed and dazzled by the skill, beauty, and strength of our amazing international artists. You will fall off your seat laughing at our clowns. You will gasp in awe and fear as our acrobats perform tricks never seen here before!

Click Here for more information

This weekend-long celebration of food and cooking is devoted to young people, and designed to turn you into a foody!

Set in the grounds of Riccarton House, on offer will be a range of exciting and educational activities to get children interested and involved, including: the McCain Red Veggie Truck, Kids’ Market Days, Cheeky Monkeys face painting, cooking demonstrations, Mitre 10 Mega bouncy castle and much more.

Click Here for more information

The Closing Ceremony celebrates the achievements of athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games, and includes a Handover from one Host City to the next. In 2012, London will hand over to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympic Games. The Closing Ceremony also features the extinguishing of the Olympic Flame, signalling the end of the Games.

The Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games will provide an opportunity for the world to view the artistic expression of Artistic Director Kim Gavin, his team and the culture of our Host City and the UK. As with the Opening Ceremony, there are certain elements that must feature as outlined in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter. The artistic performance of the Ceremony then gets underway and celebrates the success of the Games.

Click Here for more information

Curiouser and Curiouser……

A look at the curiosity of choreography by six New Zealand creative artists – given a space in an unexpected place and an open invitation to make dance on Footnote Dance Company.

These works are a result of our belief in Footnote as a ‘safe place to be unsafe’.

Inquisitive, intriguing, interesting –

Absence by Michael Parmenter
Beautiful Prison by Lyne Pringle
Rabbit Brain Terrain by Maria Dabrowska
A Common Language by Kristian Larsen
Feet Firmly Planted by Fleur de Thier
Vile Bodies by company dancer Lucy Marinkovich

Enjoy a social evening at unexpected places.

Come dance with the Footy Crew.
Click Here for more information

National Tooth Fairy Day celebrates one of childhood’s favorite visitors.

Losing baby teeth is a sometimes traumatic experience for young children. Enter the world of the friendly, smiling and soothing Tooth Fairy. As a young child’s first baby tooth becomes lose, the child often fears losing it. The promise of a visit from the tooth fairy and a gift, turns the occasion into something to look forward to. When the tooth finally falls out, mom cleans it off. It is often put it into a “tooth box”. At bedtime, the child puts the tooth under his pillow. The tooth fairy comes after the child falls asleep. She takes the tooth and leaves a small gift, usually money. The tooth fairy leaves a gift every time the child loses a tooth

After an electrifying 2011 Season where the All Blacks walked away with Rugby’s highest honor, the Rugby World Cup, the team return to Eden Park for the second time since their heart stopping RWC Final win over France.

Today is Just Because Day. Finally, you have a chance to do something without a rhyme or reason. Most often in life, we do things because we have to, or we want to, or it’s expected of us. None of those reasons apply today.

Is there something you’d like to do, but there isn’t a reason or logic for doing it? Well, today is the day to go out and do something “just because”. It is most enjoyable if it is an uncommon, or unexpected activity or action. Perhaps, you have something in mind. If not, just go with the first thing that comes to your mind. “Just because” activities often come from a “whim” or a “what if I” type of thought. We know you will quickly get the hang of this day, and have a lot of fun with it.

To get you started, here are some of our suggestions for Just Because Day :

Take an unplanned day of vacation
Visit someone you haven’t seen in a while
Knock on someone’s door and compliment them for their great lawn
Skip, don’t walk
Spin a wheel, and bicycle in the opposite direction of where the arrow points.
Buy something you don’t need.
Jump in a puddle
Walk backwards

During eleven out of the twelve months of the year, we enjoy a wide range of holidays. When we get to August, there is a major shortage of big holidays to celebrate.

Perhaps it as just as well that there are no big holidays to compete with National Marshmallow Toasting Day. After all, how could any holiday compare with this day!?!

Enjoy today or tonight by a campfire or bonfire, toasting a big, soft, sticky and sweet marshmallow, or two, or three, or….. Summer would not be the same without a campfire and this great campfire treat.Summer is short. Summer is good. So enjoy it while it is still here. Toast a marshmallow and forget about everything else.