A special Wānaka dance display has been rapidly organised for this Friday (March 3) to raise funds for cyclone relief.

Around 50 Centralpoint Dance Studio dancers will participate in an hour-long performance at the Wānaka Primary School hall, starting at 6:30pm.

Dance studio instructor Briony Martin said the display will feature group dances as well as solos, selected by the dancers, which are usually performed at competitions. 

“The group pieces will be a mix of items performed before as well as new works in process from our current classes,” she said. 

All proceeds from the dance event will go to KidsCan $15 for Flood which has set a goal to raise $1.5M nationwide to support the hundreds of families in northern regions stricken by Cyclone Gabrielle.

KidsCan aims to get clothing and food supplies to kids and their families via the schools and early childhood centres it already supports. It’s asking people to donate $15 or whatever can be afforded, to help schools support their pupils. Already almost $690k has been raised.

Centralpoint Dance Studios’ contemporary and  jazz dance teacher Nina Fischer (left) takes junior dancers through a practice for Friday’s display.

Briony said the fundraiser was a new experience for the studio, which only resumed classes at the start of February after merging Pointe Centrale and Dance Out Loud Wānaka to form Central Point Dance.

“We have not done anything like this before and Nina Fischer, our contemporary and jazz teacher, initially came up with the idea after watching the news one morning and wondering what we could do to help,” Briony said.

“We looked up a list of where to send donations to and immediately felt that the KidsCan $15 for Floods was the right one [as] we predominantly work with kids and families.”

Pulling the display together has involved the whole team including their many adult dancers, Briony said.

Central Point Dance has been operating for just over three weeks and “the studio has been humming”, she said. 

“We worked hard during Covid to be consistent for our dancers. Dance has been our “constant” in a very unsettled time [and] we are seeing lots of youngsters wanting to dance.”

PHOTOS: Supplied