Term 1 at Alison's Studio of Dance

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We had a busy start to 2026 at the studio, with a jam-packed schedule and fantastic opportunities for all our dancers.

Firstly, a big thank you to Ken and the MoreFM team for coming in and joining us for a hip hop session.

Ken was a great sport and the senior girls loved it. You might have seen us on Facebook!

On 15 March we were lucky enough to be invited to perform at the Local Sounds Festival, organised by local volunteers as a result of Taranaki missing out on Womad this year. Jazz class students and several competition dancers had a blast performing in front of friends and family at East End. A big thank you to all dancers involved, especially as our staging ended up being a tad smaller than expected.

Our headliner this term was our annual seminar. This year's theme was Wicked, and thanks to funding from the very generous Creative Taranaki, we were able to secure some pretty special tutors. Anne Gare, formerly of the Royal New Zealand Ballet and current tutor at New Zealand School of Dance, was our ballet tutor, while Jo Mills, of Wellington Performing Arts, taught jazz and hip hop. A shout out to Jacqui, who volunteered two hours of her time to make up Elphaba and Glinda in the proper Broadway make-up, and Marcia, who stepped in at the last minute as our narrator.

Thanks also to all our parent volunteers, especially Jess, who helped our students make their props and supervised between dances.

Well done to all our students who were involved, this seminar will be hard to beat - watch this space as we will announce next year's theme in Term 4.

Finally, a huge well done to all our students who performed at April TFDA competitions over Easter. Lots of new dances and personal bests on stage as our dancers showed off all their hard work for our lovely judge. A big thank you to the volunteers of the TFDA for making this competition happen as our regular venue was closed for renovations.

Shout outs to: Clementine for her very first time on stage, and Briar, Arabella, Catriona, Jessica, Ruby and Poppy for special awards. Jessica was lucky enough to receive an award for the highest marks in ballet, barefoot and character, while Briar achieved her personal goal of a PACANZ tap nomination (shout out to Briar's tap tutor Justine!). Congratulations!

Alison and Selene are working hard on our May restricted competitions (app live now) and can't wait to see everyone on stage again soon.