Introducing Raewyn Hill -

Graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1992 with theBest All Round Student Award, Raewyn was subsequently named on the distinguished Honours Board in recognition of her commitment to dance in New Zealand.

Over an 18 year career she has become one of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary dance-theatre practitioners, having received numerous awards and endless accolades from critics and audiences throughout Australasia.

In 2001 she established Soapbox Productions as a vehicle for her growing choreographic voice and has toured consistently throughout New Zealand, having developed eight critically acclaimed full-length works: When Love Comes Calling, White, Night, Angels with Dirty Feet, Here lies within, We are gathered here today, A dance for the forgotten and Finders Keepers. In this time, Raewyn also developed several smaller commissioned works: Nest, Trio 1 and 2, How ugly is the duckling?, In time of Flight and Forgotten for Footnote Dance Company; Hanging between heaven and earth for New Zealand School of Dance; An ocean of tears for Royal New Zealand Ballet; and Vespers, which premiered during the 37th Hong Kong Arts Festival held this year, and Til Death do us Part for Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Raewyn retired from performing in 2006 following a successful tour of her solo show We are gathered here today and developed Soapbox Productions into her company ‘Raewyn Hill and Dancers’ where she was CEO, Artistic Director and choreographer. She has since appeared as a guest teacher and choreographer for a number of institutions including Royal New Zealand Ballet, Footnote Dance Company, New Zealand School of Dance, Unitec Performing Arts School, Beijing Dance Academy, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Tasdance, and recently The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where she was Artist in Residence, School of Dance until July 2009.

Raewyn Hill and Dancers premiered a full-length work Finders Keepers, supported by Creative New Zealand at the Festival of Colour, Wanaka and was subsequently presented at the Christchurch Arts Festival 2009.

Continuing to build her international profile, Raewyn became the first New Zealander to be awarded a prestigious Cite International des Arts residency in Paris for August – September 2009. As well, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy has invited Raewyn to set ‘Vespers’ on the Academy in November 2009 and recently Raewyn and Dancenorth have been invited to be resident at Baryshnikov Arts Centre, New York City October 2010.