Chris Jannides
Encyclopedia
Chris Jannides is a founding dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Limbs Dance Company
in Auckland, New Zealand
.
This pioneering New Zealand contemporary dance company was established in June 1977 soon after Chris Jannides and Friends presented their inaugural performance as a lunchtime show in the Maidment Arts Centre at Auckland University. Soon after that show, dancer, teacher and studio owner Mary Jane O'Reilly and Jannides and Friends joined forces, collectively becoming Limbs Dance Company, with Jannides as artistic director.
The new company was hungry for input, taking classes in improvisation, classical ballet, modern dance, jazz, hatha yoga, voice and creative drama. To fund their activities, the company members taught classes in jazz, modern dance, movement for actors, improvisation, undertook commercial modelling engagements, and presented public and schools performances.
Jannides left Limbs in 1980 and moved to Sydney, Australia. After a period as a freelance choreographer and teacher, in 1988 he formed the dance-in-education company Darc Swan which he led for 15 years, building to an annual audience of around 100,000 young people.
Jannides remained with Darc Swan until exhaustion led him to relocate to the land of his father's ancestors - Greece. Spiritual rejuvenation and tranquillity was foreshortened by the offer to become Head of Dance at UNITEC where he led the programme for 8 years, again placing a high priority on the creative interests of the student. He completed an MA during his tenure at UNITEC, investigating models for the optimal career preparation of pre-professional dance artists.
Currently (2010), Jannides is completing a practice-based PhD in the dance programme at the University of Chichester. His research is towards the development of new choreographic tools and outcomes. During 2010 he also returned to UNITEC to make a dance work commissioned as part of the 21st birthday celebrations of the dance programme.
Limbs Dance Company
Limbs Dance Company was established in Auckland, New Zealand in 1978, emerging from a lively whirl of artistic and cultural activities in the country's largest and most multicultural city...
in Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
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This pioneering New Zealand contemporary dance company was established in June 1977 soon after Chris Jannides and Friends presented their inaugural performance as a lunchtime show in the Maidment Arts Centre at Auckland University. Soon after that show, dancer, teacher and studio owner Mary Jane O'Reilly and Jannides and Friends joined forces, collectively becoming Limbs Dance Company, with Jannides as artistic director.
The new company was hungry for input, taking classes in improvisation, classical ballet, modern dance, jazz, hatha yoga, voice and creative drama. To fund their activities, the company members taught classes in jazz, modern dance, movement for actors, improvisation, undertook commercial modelling engagements, and presented public and schools performances.
Jannides left Limbs in 1980 and moved to Sydney, Australia. After a period as a freelance choreographer and teacher, in 1988 he formed the dance-in-education company Darc Swan which he led for 15 years, building to an annual audience of around 100,000 young people.
Jannides remained with Darc Swan until exhaustion led him to relocate to the land of his father's ancestors - Greece. Spiritual rejuvenation and tranquillity was foreshortened by the offer to become Head of Dance at UNITEC where he led the programme for 8 years, again placing a high priority on the creative interests of the student. He completed an MA during his tenure at UNITEC, investigating models for the optimal career preparation of pre-professional dance artists.
Currently (2010), Jannides is completing a practice-based PhD in the dance programme at the University of Chichester. His research is towards the development of new choreographic tools and outcomes. During 2010 he also returned to UNITEC to make a dance work commissioned as part of the 21st birthday celebrations of the dance programme.