Wellesley Studios

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Wellesley Studios Wellesley Studios is a purpose-built facility and a new arts initiative adopting the concepts of a dance-house, for the NZ dance and performing arts sector

Auckland's Wellesley Studios provides a dedicated space to foster connections and collaboration. We offer residencies, classes, workshops and rehearsal space to the dance community and beyond. Wellesley Studios is continually building its repertoire of classes. Independance runs a varied program of classes at Wellesley Studios and when in residency The New Zealand Dance Company open their classes to the dance community. Wellesley Studios has three state of the art highly spec'd dance studios for short or long term hire. Each studio has sprung wooden floors covered with Harlequin Cascade, air conditioning, Apple airplay, barres and mirrors. Please visit our website to find out more information on classes, events, residencies and studio hire.

Call for Applications: 2027 Trans-Tasman Dance Exchange Residency!Wellesley Studios (Auckland) and Dancehouse (Melbourne...
17/09/2026

Call for Applications: 2027 Trans-Tasman Dance Exchange Residency!

Wellesley Studios (Auckland) and Dancehouse (Melbourne) are delighted to announce the return of the Trans-Tasman Dance Exchange Residency for 2027.
 
This Residency Programme reflects a shared ambition to foster exchange and collaboration between independent dance artists in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia between 2025 and 2027. The triennial partnership, funded by Creative New Zealand, Wellesley Studios and Dancehouse, sees each organisation host an international artist from the other country for a 2-week residency. Dancehouse will host an artist from New Zealand, and Wellesley studios will host an artist from Australia.

Each Artist will receive:
• 2 weeks of studio space at the host venue.
• Stipends, per diems, accommodation and travel support
• Opportunities to connect with local communities, present work, and exchange practices.

Expressions of Interest are now open and close 5pm (Melbourne time) Friday 23rd October 2026.

For more information about eligibility requirements, application details, specific residency information, and to apply, visit the residency page on our website: wellesleystudios.co.nz/residencies or click the link in our bio!

MAXINE DOYLE WORKSHOP JUST ANNOUNCED!Register NOW via the link in bio. Places are strictly limited!Wellesley Studios is ...
13/09/2026

MAXINE DOYLE WORKSHOP JUST ANNOUNCED!

Register NOW via the link in bio. Places are strictly limited!

Wellesley Studios is thrilled to offer States of Tension, a five-day workshop with celebrated independent choreographer and director Maxine Doyle.

As an independent creative with signature dance companies such as Netherlands Dance Theatre, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani (Sweden) and Ballet Boyz, (UK) as well as Associate Artist with Punchdrunk International and original co-creator of Sleep No More, Maxine’s process shifts between dance, theatre, installation and bold visual design.

In 2019 Maxine created the award-winning site-specific work Sunset (Australian Dance Award) for Strut Dance and the Perth Festival, and in 2023 continued her collaboration with visionary artist Es Devlin with the critically acclaimed dance installation work Salamander, for the Brisbane International Festival and Australasian Dance Collective.

Maxine makes her way to Aotearoa New Zealand to share her creative methodology while also looking for dancers to populate various projects in the Asia Pacific region. In the studio, Maxine dives into extended improvisations drawing inspiration from the artists she is in the room with as a way to create worlds and move towards unknown artistic landscapes.

States of Tension is suitable for:
· dancers and teachers who are tertiary trained graduates, professionals
· actors / physical theatre practitioners who have a strong physical practice
· third year tertiary acting or dance students

This is a paid improvisation and choreographic workshop with a maximum of 20 participants.

🗓️ Monday 16th – Friday 20th November
⏰ 10am – 4pm each day
📍 Studio 2, Wellesley Studios
🔗 Secure your place via the link in our bio

With thanks to Creative New Zealand, FORM Sydney and Paul Selwyn Norton.

As part of its vision to provide support for the professional independent dance sector, Wellesley Studios is calling for...
03/09/2026

As part of its vision to provide support for the professional independent dance sector, Wellesley Studios is calling for expressions of interest for its Summer Choreographic Residency 2027.

The 2027 Summer Choreographic Residency is open to project based work of any movement based performance medium and at any stage of development.

The 2027 Residency includes:
• Studio space and facilities over three weeks in early 2027 for one choreographer or collaborating group of artists.
• Financial contribution.
• Choreographic and/or producing mentoring if requested.
• An informal showing hosted by Wellesley Studios.

2027 Summer Choreographic Residency Key Dates:
Monday 11th January - Friday 29th January 2027
Studio space will be available Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm
113 Wellesley St West, Auckland

Applications close 5pm Monday 28th September 2026.
Applicants notified no later than Monday 19th October 2026.

The Residency is open to NZ citizens and residents, or artists who have attended a NZ tertiary institution and are presently contributing to the arts culture and community of Aotearoa.

For more information and to apply please visit the Wellesley Studios Residency webpage.

Wellesley Studios is excited to announce Helena May as our 2026 Research Resident! ⭐Here’s what Helena will be focusing ...
14/08/2026

Wellesley Studios is excited to announce Helena May as our 2026 Research Resident! ⭐

Here’s what Helena will be focusing on during her time in the studio:
“During this residency I will undertake a research project titled ‘Practicing Abandonment’. My research investigates whether another mode of movement can emerge when techniques, inherited pathways, aesthetic preferences and choreographic habits are all temporarily suspended. Rather than asking how to invent new movement, my research asks what might become possible when movement is no longer organised through familiar systems of knowledge.

‘Practicing Abandonment’ is not an attempt to empty the body of everything it has learned. It is a practice of becoming aware of what exists within it, so that what influences me can become a choice, instead of an unconscious repetition. Through meditative exercises and mapping my movement lineage, I will trace techniques, pathways, aesthetics and habits that have shaped my practice and the way that I habitually move, and then attempt to let go of what is familiar or recognisable.

This research seeks to reveal what remains in my body, if anything at all, when I abandon all that is known.”

Helena May is an artist of Te Āti Awa and Pākehā descent, born and raised in the Waitākere region of Tāmaki Makaurau.

A graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, Helena has since collaborated nationally and internationally with many companies and artists, including The New Zealand Dance Company, Jessie McCall, Tino Sehgal, Threading Frames Company, Atamira Dance Company, InPlay Projects, Footnote, and Black Grace.

Alongside her performance career, Helena creates original works that combine her interest in visual arts with her love of movement.

Underlying all of Helena's work is a deep gratitude for the ever-evolving capacity of the human body, and the people & communities in which movement allows us to connect with.

This Research Residency is generously supported by Creative New Zealand.

Our newest Short Term Resident, Jasmine Reynolds, joins us in the studio next week to continue development on a new work...
23/07/2026

Our newest Short Term Resident, Jasmine Reynolds, joins us in the studio next week to continue development on a new work ⚡

Jasmine Reynolds is a Māori, Pākehā multidisciplinary visual and movement artist from Tāmaki Makaurau. She recently graduated from Unitec with a Bachelor's in Performing and Screen Arts, majoring in Contemporary Dance. Her choreographic practice uses various media, objects, images, and movement states to unearth the fragility of human nature. She asks how we can remain present and continue to make space for our creative communities despite pressures from our political environment.

For this short-term residency, Jasmine will continue to develop her 2025 contemporary work, ‘Fluffy Faffing,’ originally made for Unitec’s choreographic dance showcase. The final developed work will be presented in a double-bill contemporary performance in collaboration with choreographer Lily-Mae 솔희 Baird and Unitec Dance alumni at Basement Theatre this coming October.

Jasmine will continue to expand on ideas and images composed from her 2025 work during this residency. She is also interested in seeing how this piece transforms as she enters the creative industry landscape, welcomes fresh artistic voices, and continues to adapt to her ever-changing environment.

Rebecca Jensen joins us in the studio next week as our next 2026 Short Term Resident 🌀Rebecca Jensen is a dancer, choreo...
20/07/2026

Rebecca Jensen joins us in the studio next week as our next 2026 Short Term Resident 🌀

Rebecca Jensen is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, born in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and based in Naarm, Melbourne. Her work ranges in scale and medium, including performance for theatres, galleries, and unconventional spaces, alongside participatory projects, community events, and films. Her low-fi, process-driven practice focuses on the body, and the interdisciplinary potential of choreography. She works through dance, utilising it’s equally speculative and practical qualities to, encourage reflection, connection and transformation.

At Wellesley Studios Rebecca will further develop ideas that emerged through her recent dance work Natural Basic via an intensive period of solo practice, working alone and with other dancers. This residency will form the first development phase of a new solo work, ERA (working title). Natural Basic explored diverse temporalities, predictive technologies, weather systems, and non-human perception - bodies registering change like barometers—sensitive to pressure, shifting rhythms, and unseen forces. The work investigated polycrisis: overlapping climate, economic, and geopolitical crises. Through complex physical patterns that twisted, collided, and coexisted, the dance navigated multiple temporalities simultaneously. ERA continues this research while considering metacrisis—the deeper systems and worldviews that produce crisis. If polycrisis is the storm, metacrisis is the broken compass. The work explores saturation, defunct systems, non-linear causality, entanglement, and embodied waste asking what a solo body can express.

📸 Machiko Abe

Wellesley Studios would like to congratulate all those who were successfully offered grants from Creative New Zealand. O...
20/07/2026

Wellesley Studios would like to congratulate all those who were successfully offered grants from Creative New Zealand. Of all grants offered, Dance Arts received 5 grants totaling $9,083,769!

We would also like to acknowledge all those who were unsuccessful in their funding applications. We recognise your tireless and dedicated work, and wish you all the best for future applications.

To be [ ] is fair enough in these times: critical reflections from dancing here and there!Residency Sharing with Rose Ph...
20/07/2026

To be [ ] is fair enough in these times: critical reflections from dancing here and there!

Residency Sharing with Rose Philpott
🗓️ Friday 31st July, 6pm – 8pm
📍 Studio 2, Wellesley Studios

Our 2026 Trans-Tasman Dance Exchange Resident, Rose Philpott, has recently completed her Residency at Dancehouse Melbourne, and returns to Wellesley Studios for a special one-off sharing!

Rose Philpott will present some critical reflections following two weeks in Naarm, Australia for the Trans-Tasman Dance Exchange at Dancehouse in May. This evening will involve a sharing of some of the work and thoughts that were developed during and following her residency.

All welcome ⭐

Click the Eventbrite link in our bio to RSVP, or feel free to drop in on the evening. See you there!

Thanks to Creative New Zealand and Dancehouse.

Today we’re looking back on the showing of ‘Attempting Failure’ from our 2025 Research Residents, Gracie Lewis, Stella G...
09/07/2026

Today we’re looking back on the showing of ‘Attempting Failure’ from our 2025 Research Residents, Gracie Lewis, Stella Grace Seawright, and Sydney Magnus.

The three used their Residency to research highly embodied and seemingly impossible movement, investigating new ranges of bold and visceral exhaustion, with a showing that “functioned as a live research environment.”

The three described the Residency as “a rich environment for informal knowledge exchange and dialogue,” and that “since the conclusion of the residency, each of us has integrated elements of the research into our individual practices.”

Looking for the chance to explore your own ideas with no choreographic or performative outcome? Our 2026 Research Residency is still open for applications, and will be closing this coming Monday 13th July.

This is a Residency opportunity open to professional dance artists at any stage of career that provides space and stipend to give the artist the freedom to research, test, and develop ideas.

Don’t miss your chance to apply! For more information on eligibility requirements, application details, and specific residency information, visit the residency page on our website: wellesleystudios.co.nz/residencies or click the link in our bio.

This residency is supported by Creative New Zealand.

Here's a throwback to our 2025 Research Resident, val smith, at the showing of their project 'The Glimmering.'val was on...
06/07/2026

Here's a throwback to our 2025 Research Resident, val smith, at the showing of their project 'The Glimmering.'

val was one of our inaugural Research Residents and had this to say about the experience...

“My time as the 2025 Research Resident at Wellesley Studios was deeply supportive, generative, and professionally affirming. […] The residency supported sustained studio time to think, dream, sketch, and experiment, allowing the research to unfold at an appropriate pace. […] A particularly meaningful aspect of the residency was the backing to bring in collaborators [and] I also greatly appreciated the ways the Wellesley Studios team facilitated connections with other residency artists. […] The Wellesley Studios Research Residency has been foundational to both the artistic and professional trajectory of this project, and I am deeply grateful for the support, care, and belief invested in my work.”

Our 2026 Research Residency is currently open for applications, and will be closing Monday 13th July. Don't miss your chance to apply! For more information on eligibility requirements, application details, and specific residency information, visit the residency page on our website: wellesleystudios.co.nz/residencies or click the link in our bio!

This residency is supported by Creative New Zealand.

Address

113-115 Wellesley Street
Auckland
1010

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 9pm
Tuesday 8am - 9pm
Wednesday 8am - 9pm
Thursday 8am - 9pm
Friday 8am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+6493734336

Website

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