The New Zealand Dance Company has announced a starry new leadership line-up to step into the shoes of founding director, Shona McCullagh, who is leaving after 10 years to become take the helm of the Auckland Arts Festival.
Former Netherlands Dance Theatre chief executive Janine Dijkmeijer has been appointed executive director; while New Zealander Victoria (Tor) Colombus and Australian James O’Hara have been appointed co-artistic directors.
Currently living in the Netherlands, Dijkmeijer works as advisor and mentor within the performing arts. She has formed a network called CASC Connect|Art|Sharing|concepts supporting an interdisciplinary and sustainable arts sector. Before her five years at NDT she was manager of the Dutch National Ballet.
Colombus is a NZ dance artist with a wealth of experience as a performer, mentor, educator and maker, performing and collaborating with numerous companies in NZ and Australia. For the past 11 years she has been a contemporary dance tutor at NZ School of Dance, of which she is a graduate.
Australian James O'Hara is also a performer and collaborator of wide experience. Beginning his career as a member of Steps Youth Dance Company in Perth and then Ballet Junior de Genève, Switzerland, as a recipient of a Princess Grace Foundation Bursary in 2004, since then he has worked all over the world with contemporary and classical collaborators, particularly Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in Belgium. He was assistant director at National Youth Dance Company Sadlers Wells London and a full time tutor at New Zealand School of Dance in 2017-18, among many other appointments.
The new leadership begins part-time from June, with both roles moving to full time in 2021.
See an earlier article on James O'Hara here.