December 8, 2011

TEMPO DANCE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR APPOINTED 

Tena koutou katoa

The New Zealand Dance Festival Trust (NZDFT) is very excited to announce that Celia Walmsley has been appointed as Festival Director for the Tempo Dance Festival for 2012.

For the past 12 years Celia has held the positions of CEO and Director of Programming at the St James Theatre and the Opera House in Wellington. In these roles she has programmed, sourced, negotiated and presented dance, working closely with dancers and choreographers including the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Sylvie Guillem, Sadler’s Wells, Kowhiti, Tane Mahuta and Merenia Gray, Jenny Stevenson, Maui – One Man Against the Gods, Neil Iremia and Black Grace, Footnote Dance, Te Matatini, Sydney Dance Company, Dance Your Socks Off (now Wellington Dance Festival), local cultural dance groups and many NZ dance schools.   She recently presented Mary Jane O’Reilly’s In Flagrante in a very successful two week season at the St James Theatre in Wellington just prior to its Tempo season.

Celia’s strong understanding of the festival environment through her collaborative work with the NZ International Arts Festival, Auckland Festival and Taranaki and Christchurch Arts Festivals makes her the perfect candidate for the job of Tempo festival director.

Celia also worked previously in management at Sadler’s Wells, London’s premier dance theatre.

“We are incredibly pleased to have attracted and secured someone with such a competent skill base as Celia to Tempo. We know her appointment will only enhance the level of artistic and professional excellence that Tempo strives to realise for our dance industry” – Marama Lloydd, Chair of the NZDFT.

Celia says, “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to shape the future direction of New Zealand’s leading dance festival and one for which I have the skills, experience, energy and enthusiasm.”

Celia will take up her contract in Feb 2012 and will be welcomed into the Tempo team with a Whakatau on Feb 1 at the Danz/Tempo offices in Auckland.   

Nga mihi whaariki
Marama Lloydd
On behalf of the New Zealand Dance Festival Trust