spinning sun dance company

Company Bios 2012

Ann Dewey - Artistic Director, Choreographer

Ann Dewey trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and at Rambert Academy in London. She has performed with many professional companies in The U.K and New Zealand, namely Janet Smith and Dancers, DV8 Physical Theatre, Douglas Wright Dance company and Michael Parmenter’s Commotion Company.
Ann is one of New Zealand’s foremost Contemporary Dance teachers and choreographers. She has taught both nationally and internationally at levels ranging from professional companies to community classes. In addition to those companies mentioned above she has taught Ballet Rambert, Rosas, Black Grace Dance Company and most recently the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Ann choreographs dances for her own company Spinning Sun. She won the award for Best choreography (Paper Tiger) at Tempo 07, Aucklands’ Festival of Dance and Best Dance of the Year 2009 for Left and Right. Their work has toured throughout N.Z., the U.K. and most recently to New Caledonia. Ann and her company are also regular tutors in many education projects in Auckland schools most notably with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. She has written the first Contemporary dance syllabus in the country, which is taught throughout New Zealand. Ann lives in Leigh where she is enlivening the locals with her dances and premiers her new work Shine Lady in May 2011.

Dancers

Liz Kirk

Liz Kirk graduated from New Zealand school of Dance in 1989 and went on to achieve a BA (Honours) in Performing Arts from Middlesex University, London in 1995. She has also studied extensively in New York. Since returning to New Zealand in1995 she as worked for many acclaimed choreographers. Many of these dance pieces have toured New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific region. Liz is also experienced in theatre, working as a Dancer/Actor Singer with Auckland Theatre Company and has been employed in the TV and Film industry since 1997. Liz is also an experienced rehearsal director and teacher of contemporary technique and Classical Ballet, and has taught choreographic and dance workshops in schools and holiday programmes for the last ten years. For the last five years Liz and Ann have curated and produced the award winning show Old Yeller.

Liz has worked with Spinning Sun since 2003, performing in Queen Camel (03) at The Concert Chamber in the Auckland Town Hall, Flicker (08 – 09) Leigh, Auckland, Nelson, Tauranga, New Caledonia, Left and Right (09) Leigh and Auckland.

Julie van Renen

Julie has been working as a freelance dancer and choreographer since graduating with a BPSA in Contemporary Dance from Unitec in 2003.She has danced for various choreographers such as Megan Adams, Clare Luiten, Julia Milsom, and Wilhemeena Gordon. Julie has choreographed two short works on the Pointy Dog Youth Dance Company, which she was a founding member of and is where she first started working with Ann Dewey. She choreographed ‘Emporium’ a site specific dance piece for shop windows which was performed on K Road and for the Wellington Fringe Festival in 2006. Julie has been working with ‘Mixit’ a Refugee Youth Arts Project and her choreography on Pointy Dog was part of The Tempo Dance Festival.Julie recently choreographed a dance work for the Dunedin Fringe Festival. It was a part of a show that one won 'Best Dance' in the Festival.

Julie has worked with Spinning Sun since 2004 workshopping Paper Tiger and then performing in, Flicker (08 – 09) Leigh, Auckland, Nelson, Tauranga, New Caledonia, Left and Right (09) Leigh and Auckland. Julie first worked with Ann when she was a teenager in the youth dance company Pointy Dog.

Liana Yew

Liana graduated with a BPSA from Unitec in 2000 and is based in Auckland. Since then her freelance career has given her opportunities to work with many choreographers in diverse styles. Some of these include, Fleur De Thier, Sean Curham, Alexa Wilson, Malia Jonhston, Raewyn Hill, Black Grace and Friends, Sarah Sproull Foster, Douglas Wright, Tanemahuta Gray, Megan Adams and Julia Milsom. Liana choreographed a solo work Kiwi, for which she was awarded Best Emerging Choreographer by the Tempo festival.

Liana first worked with Spinning Sun on their 2009 New Zealand tour of Flicker.

Creative collaborators

Mike Petre – Designer

Born Piopio, New Zealand 1964. Bachelor of Agriculture (Management), Massey University, Palmerston North, 1986. Bachelor of Design, Carrington Polytechnic, 1994. Raised on a sheep and beef farm in Piopio (King Country). Worked on farms in New Zealand before studying for an agriculture degree and in the UK and Israel afterwards.

Following his graduation from design studies, Petre was a founder member of Sturdee studios and in 1998 of Indicator studios. He began exhibiting via the studios in 1995 and since 1997 has exhibited in dealer galleries in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. He has been a finalist in the three Wallace Awards he has entered (1998, 1999 & 2001) and in 2001 was featured in episode 4 of TVNZ’s ‘The Big Art Trip’. He now lives and works in the Matakana area where he is a part of the Mahurangi group of Artists. Mike is currently represented by Milford Gallery in Dunedin/Queenstown.

Jo Randerson - Dramaturg
Jo Randerson, founder of Barbarian Productions (an independent comic-theatre troupe) and author of The Knot, The Spit Children and The Keys to Hell,  is a freelance performer and writer based in Wellington. Winner of the Bruce Mason Playwrighting Award in 1997, and the Robert Burns Fellowship in 2001, Jo has travelled internationally with her work to the UK, Scandinavia, Europe and Australia. Jo was a Winston Churchill Fellow in 2002 and visited Russia to study literature there. She was also the designer of the successful 'Posted Love' exhibition at the National Library, and curated 'My House Surrounded By A Thousand Suns' at The New Dowse. Her art work has featured in exhibitions at the City Gallery in Wellington, and the Physics Room in Christchurch. Jo was one of the Billy T Comedy Award finalists in 2005 - overall, she is an artist who works across many mediums and is above all interested in strong and different voices within the arts community.

Charlotte Rose LTCL, BMus, MCPA (1st Class Honours) - Composer/Sonic artist/ Sound engineer

Charlotte Rose is a composer, sonic artist, musician, freelance sound engineer, and teacher. She has studied with John Rimmer, John Elmsly, Eve de Castro-Robinson and John Coulter, and graduated from the University Auckland School of Music with a Master's degree in Creative and Performing Arts, majoring in Sound and Electro-acoustic Composition. She currently lectures Sound Design and Music Technology at the University of Auckland, while pursuing a second Master's degree under the tutelage of Eve de Castro-Robinson and John Elmsly, this time majoring in orchestral composition.

Once a full-time television and post-production sound engineer, she has since worked on as many shows (dance, theatre, music) as time will allow, as sound engineer, operator, stage manager, producer, composer, performer and musician. As well as performing her own compositions, she is also a great supporter of local composers: 2008 found her regularly performing around Auckland City with composer and contemporary violinist Johnny Chang, as well as performing some of the more theatrical works of Eve de Castro-Robinson and Jack Body. She also regularly contributes electro-acoustic works and sound installations for various University of Auckland Concerts.

She has collaborated as a composer with a number of choreographers, including Ann Dewey, Clare Luiten, Suzanne Cowan, Rachel Aitkinson and Linda Parker of Splash Flying Dance & Theatre Company. Most recent works were Left and Right (Spinning Sun 2009).Grotteshi (Maidment Theatre, Tempo Dance Festival 2008), Women & Honour:Notes on Lying (Auckland Town Hall, February 2008), and Aries & Hephaestes (Touch Compass's Anniversary Tour, end of 2007).