Course Overview

Technical improvement at any part in your career is important, but even more so as you embark on the journey of gaining experience in pursuit of a professional career. We aim to help facilitate that goal with the training aspect of our programme. The training aspect at NZYBC equips you to be a versatile and explosive dancer. To achieve this it is essential that classical training is held paramount. This will then be enhanced with various cross-training options and much needed emphasis on contemporary and commercial classes. A vital facet that NZYBC places emphasis on is wellbeing. The art form requires as much mental and emotional tenacity as it does physical. To thrive in this industry you need to be resilient.

We believe educating you to understand yourself, your temperament and personality, your strengths and weaknesses will equip you to face the challenges of this career path. To achieve this we have lectures and services with various tutors scheduled throughout your working week, alongside a referral system for higher needs. The performance opportunities that NZYBC provides our dancers with will be high-intensity neo-classical works and classical repertoire. This will provide them with the experience required to move forward toward their goal of being a professional dancer in a company.

A weekly rehearsal schedule preparing for the upcoming season gives you an understanding of what life is like in a company, as well as the artistic and technical gain from that level of work. NZYBC will have four seasons per year. One at the end of every term in the first week of the academic school holidays. One of our seasons will be taken on a small South Island tour. Seasons will be a mix of Classical Repertoire and Neo-Classical choreography. We aim to extend our dancers, providing them with challenges that cause their artistic interpretation to mature, and their technique to gain dynamism. Dance students are required to be a minimum of 16 years old when auditioning and no older than 20 years old at the time of audition.

We understand the current climate is creating a range of limitations for our New Zealand talent and wish to create an option that assists in such circumstances. Whether it be the minimum one year course or the recommended two years, we will structure a plan for you to see your goals achieved. If a student requires continued NCEA education, we have the ability to provide such through supervised study with Te Kura.