NZ Scholarship Dance case studies
NZ Scholarship Dance · Put your knowledge to work in context.
New Zealand Scholarship Dance is an award recognising top secondary school students, assessed by NZQA for candidates who want to be stretched beyond Level 3 study in the subject. It is not a qualification in the NCEA sense: it is a competitive award, and the number of Scholarships in a subject is limited to around 3% of the students who achieve 14 or more credits in that subject at NCEA Level 3. The NZ Scholarship Dance case studies are 5 cases and about 4,290 words.
1Site-specific choreography in a constrained school foyer
A Year 13 choreographer has been given a 4-minute slot in a regional dance showcase. The venue's main stage is unavailable, so the work will be performed in the school foyer: a polished concrete floor, a glass wall on one side, a staircase at the back, and an audience seated on three sides within 1.5 metres of the performance area.
842 words, about 4 min2Cultural consultation and a haka-derived opening phrase
A student choreographer who is Pākehā is making a five-minute contemporary work for a school arts festival. Her concept is 'challenge and response', and she wants to open with a 30-second phrase adapted from a haka she learned at a previous school's kapa haka practice.
903 words, about 5 min3Adapting a stage work for a dance film with one camera
A dance film task requires a three-minute screen work adapted from an existing eight-minute stage work for five dancers. The stage version relies on close unison, a 90-second floorwork section, and a repeated motif of the dancers catching each other.
907 words, about 5 min4Two adjudicators disagree about stillness and pedestrian movement
At a regional secondary schools dance competition, two adjudicators give very different scores to the same six-minute work. The work opens with 40 seconds of near-stillness, includes a three-minute section of pedestrian walking and spoken text, and ends with a short burst of virtuosic turning.
779 words, about 4 min5Stress fracture, a four-show season, and an underprepared understudy
A 17-year-old dancer is central to a trio that has four performances in five days at a regional festival. She has been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the second metatarsal and her doctor has advised no impact activity for six weeks.
859 words, about 4 min