ANITA HUTCHINS

MOVEMENT MAKER . VISUAL ARTIST . DANCER . TEACHER . WRITER

Teaching the art of dance since 2009

Anita started her dance journey just down the road from the Muritai Yacht Club with Florence McFarlane and the little Blue Penguins at The Eastbourne Rugby Club.

Anita trained at The Royal Ballet School London(2000) and spent 8 years performing with ballet and contemporary companies in Europe and NZ. Anita continues to research, teach, choreograph and perform in the field of dance in Wellington. Her contemporary dance classes have a strong focus on the mechanics of movement and finding freedom and agency through tasked improvisation.

Passionate about collaboration and visual installation, her current interest is in projection art using retro slide projectors and film photography.

Anita graduated from Avalon Film and TV School (2006) and has a BA majoring in Philosophy from Victoria University (2011). Anita has 14 years of experience teaching ballet and contemporary dance to beginners through to vocational students. Anita devises her classes and choreography specifically for the dancer/s she is working with. She focuses on teaching dancers what they need to take them to the next level.

Anita has work experience in events management, team leadership, and administration. She is a problem solver and enjoys building logical systems for teaching dance and getting things done.

RECENT ART PROJECTS

Since 2020 Anita has been in a cross-disciplinary collaboration ‘Jake & Anita’ with guitarist Jake Church. Their first collaboration together was ‘Scrúbi’ (2001) - mini performance art pieces made from an and audience members Scrùbi drawing. The mini performances are like a sonic-motion caricature. Jake and Anita write their own original songs and perform them in their music/dance gigs in Wellington. In 2023 they released their first song ‘Water and Coins’. In 2024 they created and performed their full-length work ‘VERBS’ - a music, dance and photography installation in the Wellington Fringe Festival.

jakeandanita.co.nz

CURRENT EMPLOYMENT

2024-present Started Blue Cloud Dance

2021-present Dance Teacher at Chilton Ballet Academy

2009-present Dance Teacher at Wellington Dance Academy

MAIN DANCE EMPLOYMENT

2023 Dancer with Java Dance for their tour of ‘The Creamery’ in Shanghai

2021-2023 Events Manager and Choreographer at The Chapel on Cambridge

2014-2019 Worked with Chris Jannides as he further explored his BodymAPP research

2007-2008 Member of Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds, UK

2006 Member of The Royal New Zealand Ballet

2006 Won TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, New Zealand