Our Dances

There are 10 main dances in the New Zealand Academy syllabus that are also regularly performed competitively within New Zealand.

The five Highland dances are:

Highland Fling
Sword
Sean Truibhas
Highland Reel
Reel O Tulloch

The five step dances are:

Irish Jig Single Time
Irish Jig Double Time
Irish Hornpipe
Irish Reel
Sailors Hornpipe

There is a beginner assessment programme in place which allows children, who are not old enough or advanced enough to complete a full examination, to still reach a goal of attaining a certain standard of performance. These are called "Getting started in Dance" and "Let's Dance" and covers all the basic exercises and basic arm positions that beginners first learn, and they are danced to fun nursery rhyme type music.

Highland Examinations are conducted from Initial Grade through to Advanced Grade (10 examinations) which allow candidates to demonstrate basic positions and movements on the barre, Arm exercises, Elevation exercises, Deportment and Poise, Foundation Movements, and then these are further linked to demonstrate these movements in full dance form.

The same examination structure covers the 5 Step Dances - Stage 1 and 2 examinations for Irish dances, and Stage 1 and 2 for Sailors Hornpipe.

Medal Test examinations are also available which cover National Dances and lesser known Hebridean type dances. There are 8 exams in total which cover 24 dances! These go from Junior Bronze through to Junior Gold Star and the same from Senior Bronze through to Senior Gold Star.