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ISSUE 31 | OCTOBER 2014
Romy Gellen (Year 10)
It been a great year for Romy, she has
been selected to dance the lead role
in the Canterbury Ballet Company’s
production of the Nutcracker on top of
being part of a Canterbury Ballet troupe
who competed at the New Prague
International Dance Festival in July.
“Arriving in Prague was amazing,” says
Romy. “Everywhere you looked there
was always something spectacular. From
beautiful cobblestone roads and paths
to rows of unique buildings steeped in
history. All the people we met seemed
really lovely and it was a relief to find
that almost everybody spoke quite fluent
English in Prague.
I came to realise that the world is so
much bigger than it seems, and can be
quite scary. I think it’s really important
to savour the environment and take it
in. A lot of the trip felt so surreal and
it took me a few moments to adjust
occasionally. To top our trip off, we went
through Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia
was absolutely breath-taking. There was
a nostalgic and deeply spiritual feeling
as I walked around and it wasn’t just the
history behind it, it was the art, the effort
and the mind behind it all. I feel changed
and I learnt so much from it.”
Georgia-Rae Taylor (Year 13)
Georgia-Rae was selected as a dancer in
the New Zealand team that headed to the
World Championships of Performing Arts
(WCOPA) held in Los Angeles in July.
She was competing in the jazz, lyrical,
musical theatre, contemporary and hip
hop sections against competitors from
over forty countries.
Georgia-Rae had an extremely successful
trip both as an individual competitor
and as part of the New Zealand Team.
She won gold, three silvers, and two
bronzes, a prestigious Industry Award
(which means producers, managers and
the staff at WCOPA believed she had
fantastic spirit and attitude and would
like to work with her), a Finalist Award
along with a scholarship to the New York
Film Academy and to Millennium Dance
Complex in Los Angeles. Team New
Zealand also won the Team Spirit Award
and scored bronze in the team event.
Georgia-Rae will take up the scholarship
for the New York Film Academy in 2016
after spending a year in England.
Alex Clarke-Ryk (Year 12)
Alex was also part of the Canterbury
Ballet’s trip to Prague for the International
Dance Festival.
“Most of us had never travelled to Europe
before, so to say we were excited, would
be a gross understatement,” says Alex.
“It took us three days to get over to
Prague, due to stopovers and time
differences. We were in Dubai for
one day and night. Here we got the
opportunity to ride a camel and engage in
a spot of shopping in the Dubai mall.
Once we landed in Prague we were busy
rehearsing and taking part in workshops.
We did however manage to visit a
castle just outside of the city and take
a romantic boat ride along the famous
river, Vltava,
Canterbury Ballet opened the first night
of performances which made us all feel
privileged to represent New Zealand. The
Gala night saw us perform three of our
group dances and two solos, after which
the awards were given out. We were
all feeling very nervous. However, as it
turned out, we needn’t have been as we
won the Junior Grand Prix Prize and the
Sponsor’s Award.
VILLA NEWS
Da nci ng Arou nd the World
In the last edition of Vmail we reported on a group of Villa girls who had been selected to represent New Zealand at a number of
international dancing fixtures. In this edition we have asked them to briefly tell us about their experiences.
Romy outside the theatre in Pragu e.
Alex in Pragu e, on far left.
Georgia-Ra e on stage in Los Angeles.
