Dance Highlight: A Visit from the Royal New Zealand Ballet

We know our boys love cracking out their PE uniforms at every opportunity - so it was great to see them pick up the gauntlet and extending their comfort zones under Neve's capable baton! A day before the RNZB's performance of Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake', Neve was brimming with excitement, which quickly filled the room.

It was really impressive how quickly Neve got our youngest students all moving together in unison - it's not hard to see her years of experience in Ballet an as an educator coming to the forefront as she teaches.

The class started off with some introductory steps and stretches in time with the music, and this clever short exercise got the boys warmed up both physically and mentally.

After an impressive demonstration from Neve, the boys sorted into lines and took turns practicing their leaps. Let's just say she definitely made it look easier than it is! But judging from the enthusiasm, it was plain to see there might be a few burgeoning ballerinos in the room.

Then we came to jumping in time as the boys were introduced to first, second, third and fourth position - which set them up for the pièce de résistance - putting it all together with the famous 'Dance of the Cygnets' from Swan Lake itself!

As Neve rounded off the workshop, she quite literally brought the boys back to ground - showing them a thing or two about what it takes to stand on point before they were ready to get back to class.

After the workshop, we asked the boys what surprised them - and the results speak for themselves!

"It surprised me:

• That I could do ballet
• How physically demanding, it was.
• It was so so so so so so hard and cool and interesting
• Prior to the workshop, I had the lowest level of expectations, but I got the highest level of learning. 
• When our Tutor did that running splits jump in the air!
• it was harder then I thought it would be
  
• That its very hard to do what looks so simple
  
• That there are so many different elements to ballet and so many different ways that it could be performed.
  
• One of the Yr 9 students who did the workshop with us does ballet, that is cool if it is his passion
  
• How hard the professional shoe was.
  
• That men also do it."

Great learning all round from these insightful young lads.

We'll all be looking forward to Neve's next visit - a big thanks to Ms. Fridd for making these happen!