Wellington Dance Academy

Ballet Technique Workshops with Lara Flannery

We’re delighted to welcome former Royal New Zealand Ballet Artist Lara Flannery to WDA this September for three special Saturday workshops.

Lara began dancing here in Wellington before training at the New Zealand School of Dance and joining the Royal New Zealand Ballet, where she performed in works including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Paquita, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet and Swan Lake.

Now back in Wellington, Lara is looking forward to sharing her professional experience with the next generation of dancers, with a focus on technique, artistry, musicality, performance and confidence.

✨ Week 1 – Placement, Line & Artistry
✨ Week 2 – Adage, Balances & Turns
✨ Week 3 – Allegro, Musicality & Performance Polish

Grades – Ballet Grades 3 & 4
2.30–4.00pm

Seniors – Ballet Senior Foundation to Senior 5
4.15–5.45pm

📅 Saturdays 5, 12 & 19 September
💜 Full three-workshop series: $135
Single workshops: $50 each

Places are limited.

Book here:
[https://wellington-dance.pembee.app/listing/technique](https://wellington-dance.pembee.app/listing/technique)

Congrats to all our dancers who represented their schools at DanceNZmade Wellington over the past few days!

Discovery School — Maeve and Sadie
Karori West Normal School — Hazel M and Katie
Newlands Intermediate — Claire and Ire
Queen Margaret College — Cynthia, Daisy, Ellie, Farrah, Freya, Hazel S, Imogen, Meera and Ruby
Scots College — Aria, Phoebe and Matilda
South Wellington Intermediate School — Hermione
Wellington East Girls’ College — Amelie
Wellington Girls College - Neve, Mila, Anh and Emmeline
Mt Cook School— Emilie

We’re also delighted to celebrate some wonderful achievements and individual recognition:

✨ Hazel Miller — National Solo Nominee and New Zealand School of Dance Invitation Award December 2026
✨ Hermione Greenacre — New Zealand School of Dance Invitation Award December 2026 and Wellington Regional Golden Ticket
✨ Maeve Fafeita — Wellington Regional Golden Ticket
✨ Phoebe George — Wellington Regional Golden Ticket
✨ Aria Swallow — Wellington Regional Golden Ticket
✨ Maeve Fafeita and Sadie Hazlewood — Year 3–6 School Troupe Champions with Discovery School
✨ Amelie Pannett — Wellington Regional Year 9–10 Team Champion with Wellington East Girls’ College

Well done to every dancer who took part.

A big thank you, too, to all your school teachers, choreographers and parent helpers who made these opportunities possible.

We’ve done our best to include everyone, but please let us know if we’ve missed someone and we’ll happily add them.

Dancer Nutrition Workshop - this Friday 7th Aug

We're excited to welcome Becky Jones, Specialist Sports Dietitian and founder of The Performance Pantry, to Wellington Dance Academy this Friday.

Becky works with athletes and dancers, including the Royal New Zealand Ballet and High Performance Sport New Zealand, and will be sharing practical nutrition advice specifically for young dancers.

📅 Friday 7 August
🕓 4.00–5.00pm
📍 Thorndon Studio 2

Designed for WDA dancers aged approximately 11+.

Whether your dancer is working towards exams, performances, or simply enjoying their weekly classes, this workshop will provide practical strategies to support healthy growth, energy and performance.

Topics include:
• Fuel for classes, rehearsals and competitions
• Hydration and recovery
• Healthy snacks and meal ideas
• Plenty of time for questions

Parents are very welcome to stay and listen.

✨ Included as part of your WDA training and development.

Please RSVP to help us plan:
https://forms.gle/injbGXpgxAaFsHpW8

We'd love to see lots of our dancers there!

🌟 Jina’s performances as Matilda! 🌟

We’re delighted to share the performance dates for Jina, who has been cast as one of the three young performers sharing the title role in Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical at the St James Theatre.

You can see Jina performing as Matilda on:

September
24th at 7.30pm
26th at 7.30pm
30th at 7.30pm

October
3rd at 2.00pm
6th at 7.30pm
9th at 7.30pm
11th at 2.00pm — Jina’s final performance as Matilda

Super proud of you, Jina, and looking forward to seeing this great show 💜

Tickets are available here:
https://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/matilda-the-musical-nz-tickets/artist/3853019

Congratulations Georgia!

We are very pleased to share that Georgia Allen has been appointed Associate Studio Director at Wellington Dance Academy.

Georgia brings warmth, positivity and high standards to her work with our students, and her leadership is felt across many areas of the studio — from teaching and student development to STAR programme support and the day-to-day care of our dancers.

This is a very well-deserved next step, and we are so lucky to have Georgia helping guide and support our WDA community.

Please join us in congratulating Georgia!

Congrats to our Senior Jazz Team aka Disco Snails - awarded a nomination for the National Young Performer Awards / PACANZ at the Whanganui Performing Arts - Competitions & Academy competition on Saturday. Thank you so much to Cara for the vision Cara-Lea Choreography and Anna for bringing it to life 🐌🔮🕺⭐

What a special day for some of our WDA teams!

We were lucky to have ex-WDA student Faith Ward pop into the St James theatre to say hi before we danced. Faith is now a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, and she loved catching up with old friends and meeting a new generation of WDA dancers. She shared a little about her training and tour schedule all over the USA, and was such an inspiration to our dancers, who loved hearing her talk about living her dream.

Our dancers were at DanceNZmade, performing on the beautiful, historic St James Theatre stage alongside many talented teams from across the region. They all represented WDA so well and made the most of dancing on that beautiful stage.

A huge thank you to Dean McKerras and the DanceNZMade team for making this event possible.