Choreographers
DANIEL BELTON
Born in 1970, Daniel Belton graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1990, and was awarded the Fay Richwhite Scholarship during his time at the School.
He has performed with many contemporary dance companies, including the Douglas Wright Dance Company, Arc Dance Company (London / Europe), Irek Mukhamedov (London / Europe), Aletta Collins Dance Company (London / UK), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (UK), Compania Vicente Saez (Spain / Europe) and Tanz Company Gervasi (Vienna / Austria).
Turning his focus toward choreography, Daniel founded Daniel Belton and Good Company in 1997. Good Company has established a reputation for unique multi-disciplinary approach to production, having created 32 critically-acclaimed dance performance pieces for site-specific, installation, opera, dance-theatre and digital spaces. Additionally, Daniel's dance film works have been selected for over 69 international dance and multi-media festivals.
Daniel has created new choreographic commissions from Black Grace, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Unitec, The New Zealand School of Dance, The Body Festival, The University of Otago, and The University of Waikato.
Says fellow choreographer Marianne Schultz:
“He is truly a New Zealand choreographer of the 21st century. Daniel has proved over the last decade that he can deliver what he promises; his works have consistently explored the meetings of new technology, choreographic language and design”
RAEWYN HILL
Born in 1972 in Oamaru, Raewyn spent her childhood in the smaller towns of the South Island of New Zealand. Accepted into New Zealand School of Dance at the age of 15 Raewyn left home young. Graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1992 with the Best All Round Student Award, she was subsequently named on the distinguished Honours Board in recognition of her commitment to dance in New Zealand.
Over an 18year career Raewyn has become one of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary dance-theatre practitioners. Throughout her professional career as an artist, she has received numerous awards and endless accolades from critics and audiences throughout Australasia. She is no stranger to the Australian Dance scene having worked with Sue Healy and toured with Gary Stewart's company THWACK in the original Plastic Space. Her widely acclaimed solo show When Love Comes Calling was a sell-out season at the Sydney Opera House Studio Theatre with standing room tickets only available. She created A dance for the forgotten for Tasdance in 2007 and One for sorrow toured on the Tasdance program in 2008.
In 2001 she established Soapbox Productions as a vehicle for her growing choreographic voice. The company has toured consistently throughout New Zealand and has developed eight critically acclaimed full-length works, When Love Comes Calling, White, Night, Angels with Dirty Feet, Here lies within, We are gathered here today, A dance for the forgotten and Finders Keepers alongside several smaller commissioned works, notably Nest, Trio 1 and 2, How ugly is the duckling, In time of Flight and Forgotten for Footnote Dance Company, Hanging between heaven and earth for New Zealand School of Dance, An ocean of tears for Royal New Zealand Ballet, Vespers, Til Death do us Part for Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Raewyn retired from performing in 2006 following a successful tour of her solo show We are gathered here today. This enabled the transformation of Soapbox Productions into her new Company ‘Raewyn Hill and Dancers’ where she is CEO, Artistic Director and Choreographer. Her husband Richard Longbottom (NZSD Graduate ’99, ex Royal New Zealand Ballet) is Associate Director, Artistic Advisor and Rehearsal Director.
Raewyn has appeared as a guest teacher and choreographer for a number of institutions including Royal New Zealand Ballet, Footnote Dance Company, New Zealand School of Dance, Unitec Performing Arts School, Bei Jing Dance Academy, Western Australia Performing Arts, Tasdance, and most recently The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where she is currently Artist in Residence, School of Dance.
Commercially she has appeared as a dancer on Xena, The warrior Princess and the BBC’s ‘The lost world’. In 2006 she was invited to be the choreographer for the TVNZ series ‘Rude Awakenings’ as well as advise the producers for the New Zealand version of ‘So you think you can dance’. In 2008 and 2009 she provided the entertainment for the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens in the form of a photography exhibition and live performance.
Raewyn premiered a new contemporary dance work ‘Vespers’ at the inaugural Asia Pacific Dance Platform, as a part of the 37th Hong Kong Arts Festival in February 2009. The inclusion of her work in one of the world's premier Arts Festivals signalled a landmark in her career. Continuing to build her international profile, Raewyn is the first New Zealander to be awarded a prestigious Cite International des Arts residency in Paris; which she will take up from August 2009. As well, Raewyn is honoured to have been invited to create a graduation work in 2011 for New York’s prestigious performing arts conservatoire The Juilliard School.
In April 2009 Raewyn Hill and Dancers premiered a new full-length work Finders Keepers, supported by Creative New Zealand at the Festival of Colour, Wanaka. Finders Keepers will be presented at Christchurch Arts Festival 2009.
Raewyn has been appointed the new Artistic Director of Dancenorth in Australia as from January 2010.
SHONA McCULLAGH
Dip.Dance; MNZM; Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate
Shona holds a unique position in New Zealand as an outstanding film director, dancer/choreographer, filmmaker and educator.
Graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1983 as Best All Round Dancer with a Special Award in Choreography, Shona danced with Sydney-based company Darc Swan, Limbs Dance Company and Douglas Wright Dance Company, of which she became Associate Director in 1991. During her career as a dancer she performed throughout New Zealand and in Australia, New York, Los Angeles, Holland, Chile and the UK.
As a choreographer Shona has created many successful works for companies such as Limbs, Footnote, Douglas Wright Dance Company , The Royal New Zealand Ballet and her own company The Human Garden. She has also created work extensively for theatre, television, live events and film, including sequences for Xena – Warrior Princess, Hercules and Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring and King Kong. She was a founding member and prolific choreographer of The Watershed Theatre, and has also worked with Auckland Theatre Company on numerous occasions.
In 1999, Shona was named a New Zealander of the Year in North & South Magazine, in 2000 became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to dance and in 2002 became a New Zealand Arts Foundation Arts Laureate.
All three of Shona’s short films have achieved wide international recognition and unprecedented sales for New Zealand work featuring dance as a narrative medium. Her film work has been featured at the Moving Pictures Festival in Toronto, the Australasian 2002 Reeldance Awards, the BBC’s Shortest Night Short Film Festival, 2007 Dance on Camera Festival in America and the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in France.
Shona also co-directed the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker for television in 2005.
In 2007, Shona returns to producing a full length live performance piece titled The Peep Shows, combining her love of moving image and dance.
MARY JANE O'REILLY
QSM 
ARAD
Mary Jane O’Reilly has earned a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most respected dance practitioners in a career spanning almost 30 years both in New Zealand and internationally.
One of the inaugural students of the New Zealand School of Dance (then called the National School of Ballet), Mary Jane graduated in 1968, and was offered a contract with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1969. The following year, she was awarded a Royal Academy of Dancing scholarship to attend the Royal Ballet School in London (UK), and followed this with international study in both classical ballet and contemporary dance.
In 1977, Mary Jane co-founded the renowned Limbs Dance Company, and held the position of Artistic Director from 1979 to 1986. In 1984, Mary Jane received the Alan Highet award for an outstanding mid-career artist, and in 1990 was awarded the Queens Service Medal. In 1996, Mary Jane founded the Auckland Dance Company, and held the position of Artistic Director until 2003.
Mary Jane has created many high profile dance events including her choreography of the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games (1990) which involved a cast of 6000, the 3 act ballet ‘Jean’ for the Royal New Zealand Ballet (1990), and the Millennium Dawn Ceremony supporting Kiri te Kanawa in Gisborne (2000). She has augmented her choreographic career with positions such as Trustee of Auckland Performing Arts School, Committee Member of Auckland Arts Advocates, Advisor to the QEII Arts Council, Senior Lecturer of Dance at Auckland University, Governor of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, and Executive Committee member of Women in Film and Television.
Mary Jane is currently Artistic Director of Tempoº, New Zealand’s Festival of Dance.
