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November 2007 - Billie Paea
Coming to the final quarter of the year has been a time to look back, not only on all the successful events this year, but the skills obtained by our students who have learnt good character building qualities and developed friendships in the past year. This month has been busy with preparation for next year’s Dance Academy, officially starting in February, which the World of a Difference program has made happen.
Desire2Dream Showcase was a major success, and is growing every year. Approximately 1500 people attended the one night of pure dance with the top crews in NZ showing their creativity and style. This show was supposed to be in collaboration with the ‘You Got Served’ tour, featuring Marques Houston and Omarion, but was postponed to February next year. Our part of the show had to go on so we moved the showcase to the Telstra Clear Event Centre. With only a week to pull the whole show off, our events team did an amazing job to make it happen. This event acknowledged that hip hop street dance is a growing part of our culture in Aotearoa.
Another big highlight of my month was visiting New York City, where hip hop culture started. From the Bronx to Brooklyn I found dance companies at different levels such as the prestigious Broadway Dance Centre through to YMCAs and school halls. I wanted to see the difference in how we do things in New Zealand compared to where dance originated from. I learnt a lot from the people over there and one thing was clear, we have it so easy compared to the people over there. NZ is such a safe place compared to New York.
Hip hop started as the dance for the under-privileged who couldn’t afford to go to dance studios so they brought it to the streets of New York, creating their own style. They didn’t have wooden floors, so they used cardboard fridge boxes to dance on. There are different programs in New York similar to ours in NZ, that get kids off the streets doing something productive rather than destructive. Our kids need to be occupied, if they don’t they get bored and start getting into trouble.
I used this time as a networking opportunity and to build relationships with top choreographers and top dance companies to establish a way of connecting our two countries together and establish an exchange program. We want to send our elite dancers to America in exchange for their top dancers, so we can learn from each other.
