Heritage et AL

During the process of researching the dancing life of New Zealander Jan Caryll, I have discovered valuable insights into the history of New Zealand dance, significantly, teaching methods that link practices here to late nineteenth century European ballet. While accounts of local dance recitals in New Zealand from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including programmes and newspaper articles, mention the numerous dances performed by children, usually stating the name of an item and its performers, a lesser known element in these accounts are the styles and techniques of those dances. It has been assumed that dance in New Zealand in this era consisted of frivolous, somewhat exuberant displays of ‘fancy dancing’. While it is true that ‘fancy dancing’, a style enveloping a myriad of steps that propelled a dancer across, up and down the stage or studio, formed a component of dance classes and performances, my research has unearthed hidden evidence of strict and historically ...

Image: Marilyn Portman behind the microphone, 2022. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections - Ngako: Podcast series. Photographer: Benjamin Brooking. Auckland Central City Library has been a vibrant venue for live music for decades. Among its most celebrated performances are the renowned Heritage Concerts, which have captivated both our local communities and daily visitors to the library. Now in its twentieth year, this beloved concert series owes much of its success to its steadfast curator, Marilyn Portman. Marilyn has been a librarian for close to 40 years, and for many of those years has specialised as a music librarian. She is a taonga - a treasured member of staff with incredible musical knowledge and many recitals and events under her belt. Recently, she shared a fond memory from the early days of the Heritage Concerts - a moment that marked the beginning of something special: “A seed was planted in 2002 when Kowhai Baroque presented ‘An Afternoon of Italian Music and Poetry’ in...