This term, our dance classes have been privileged to have some awesome tutors from different studios share their skill and experience.
The Year 9 and 10 students have had the exciting opportunity of having some workshops in different dance genres and styles by tutors from some of the studios on the North Shore.
In our first week, we had Kelly and Amy from Mainly Dance Studio in Barry’s Point Road, Takapuna. They worked with the students on Musical Theatre and Hip Hop. Maddy Golightly and Cara Wright from Studio 246 in Forrest Hill came in to work with our Year 10 Dance students on Hip Hop and Funk. One of our ex-Westlake Dance students, Laura Prentice, came in and taught Contemporary as she is part of the team at Neverland in Rosedale. Steph from Neverland also taught our Year 10 classes a really cool Hip Hop set.
Maddy (pictured right), who was part of the world-famous dance crew Royal Family, and performed in Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” music video, says her aim at Westlake was to give students an opportunity to try a dance style they may not have considered before. “This was a safe place to learn something new with people they know,” she said.
Maddy brought some world-class expertise to the class, having travelled internationally with the Royal Family and performing in Ciara’s Level Up video. Hip Hop has some preconceptions that its hard or that if people do jazz or ballet that they can’t do Hip Hop. But actually Hip Hop is an awesome way to learn new moves and move your body in a different way. There are no rules in Hip Hop so you can make it whatever you want.”
While working at Studio 246, Maddy is also studing a Postgraduate degree to become a High School Dance Teacher – with Health and PE as her minor subjects. She says of her classes at Westlake: “The kids have been so willing to learn and they got the dance so good – so good! I was very impressed.”
We want to thank all of these studios for sending in their expert teachers to share their awesome moves and to introduce our learners to their styles. All of these studios are also offering free trial classes to all Westlake students.
We are looking forward to having tutors come in from Dancespace, En Beat and Limelight over the next few weeks!
