24 – 25 October 2020
Brought to you by the NZ Federation of Dance Teachers – A Freedom to Dance event – proudly sponsored by Porirua City Council
ENTRIES FOR 2020 ARE NOW CLOSED
Kia ora! Nau mai, haere mai! and Welcome
We will be running this year’s Championship as long as the COVID-19 alert level remains at level 1. Please note that COVID tracing will still be required and we encourage the use of good hand hygiene.
We’re excited to be bringing you the 70th championship event, being held on Labour Weekend (24 – 25 October 2020) at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua, Wellington.
Rich in history and with national titles up for grabs, this is the main event on the New Zealand dance-sport calendar.
We are proud to run this event under the Freedom to Dance banner. 
If you’re involved in dance or just love to watch it, you’ll want to join us for two days of spectacular dancing across all three styles of dance-sport: Ballroom, New Vogue and Latin American.
his competition will run under the rules of the New Zealand Recreational Dance Inc. (NZRDI)
Hei konā mai!
Doug Pouwhare – Event Organiser
Events
*Please note the syllabus has been updated with an allocated day for the Adult Open Ten Dance.
Download the Syllabus of Events for this year’s NZ Open Dance Championships.
Resources
To help studios promote the NZ Open Dance Championships to their dancers, we have developed a range of resources which you are free to download and use.
About Porirua and Wellington
What to do and where to stay.
Advertising and exhibiting
Advertise in our full colour glossy programme and have your stall at the event. Click for prices.
Check out our Facebook!
The live feed has been saved to the following links
Saturday. dancesportlive.net/dsl_nz/results/2020/nzfdt_nzopen/video_bynumber.php
Sunday.
dancesportlive.net/dsl_nz/results/2020/nzfdt_nzopen2/video_bynumber.php
Timeline PhotosHello everyone, we are working hard to get all the editing done for Nationals photos and hope to have some ready to view from day one later tonight 😀
Kiera Ferguson, Ben Heaps
How lucky are we that New Zealand's National Championship could go ahead. 70 years!!! With everything that the world has been battling with regards to COVID-19 we were provided with an opportunity to do something that very few other countries can do!
It was a fantastic championship and the event's were as competitive as ever with some new Champions being crowned and other Champions defending their titles.
A huge thanks to the Wellington Dance Community for your support. Tuku Kururangi ,Vanessa Goodchild, Paula Fisher and their team of volunteers were simply amazing. There is no way that this event could have happened let alone run without a hitch without you all.
NZ Society of Scrutineers ran solo for the first time and it went without a hitch. How amazing is Gill Hancock!!!
We have partnered with Kevin and Riana Morellini for music for the past few years, but given they're in North Queensland and couldn't get into our closed borders I had no idea how we could continue. But Kevin and Riana alond with Russell from SBI Productions came up with an amazing option of remote management and it worked like a dream!! Huge thanks to Kevin and Riana.
Russell and Sue from SBI Productions have been with us since 2015 and there is no way we could run this without them. Much like our print partners Excel Digital, who have also been with us since 2015.
Huge thanks to Porirua City council for their sponsorship of our Championship and for the Mayor officially opening the event.
Our adjudicators were of the highest standard and we were so honoured to have the one and only Karen Hardy as our International guest judge. I guess there has to be an upside to closed borders! Huge thanks for the long days of judging and professional conduct from our adjudicating team.
Finally to all the competitors, teachers, family, whanau and supporters that came along - much thanks. I hope you achieved what you were hoping for and I hope you travelled home safely across the country.
See you all in 2021
Nga mihi nui
Doug on behalf of the NZFDT
#NZFDT #freedomtodance #homeofthenzchampionship #wdodance
Well done to you and your wonderful team for bringing us such a fantastic event 🙏👏👏👏. Thank you. We are truly blessed to be in NZ.
Mīharo! Congratulations Doug and team!
Another great Nationals event ! Thank you Doug and all your team. A special shout out to the hard working team of Marshals. They do an amazing job to wrangle the herd of dancers into line in time for their events. The calm and efficient manner that all of the marshals had with us competitors is appreciated as it reduces our stresses that are already often high prior to going out on to the floor. Music was awesome again and the setup, lighting and decor, albeit slightly less due to the current situation, still gave the venue a grand look worthy of celebrating 70 years. Finally a shout out to our Aussie and other International dance friends who could not be with us on the floor this year. We hope that by this time next year there will be the opportunity for us all to compete together again and make the 71st NZ Open Dance Championships a grand return to some "normality"😁 Kia kaha, kia kanikani
Another well organised championship Douggie. Well done
Yes we are so lucky. Thank you to the team of organisers and workers who made it all happen! A lovely weekend of fabulous dancing! Can't wait to do it all again! xx
Thank you to everyone involved in running this amazing event, you are the real stars. ⭐⭐⭐
Thank you as always Doug Pouwhare for everything you and the team do. It’s always amazing and fantastic !! We are privileged to be part of the dance community and all the great people within it.
This crazy year brought nothing but problems to our small and colourful dancing world, closed halls, cancelled lessons, postponed competitions, lack of motivation, uncertainty, to name a few. Keeping the traditions going and having the Nationals this year was even more important than ever - we all needed something good, something positive, something beautiful to happen. Thank you the NZFDT and the incredible team leading by Doug Pouwhare for making the fairytale come true one more time and allowing all Cinderellas in this country however young or seasoned to put their dancing shoes on and waltz through the entire Labour weekend. Thank you our marvelous tutors Erica Kennedy and d'Artagnan Kennedy for being a big part of our life and sharing your experience with us. You are the best!🤗😍🤩
Thank you Doug and team for a fab weekend. Amazing again!
Thanks for live streaming! Was great to watch some dancing in Melbourne!
Congratulations ❤️
A huge thank you for the opportunity to watch this 70th Event via Live Stream into my Living Room❤ So sad that I couldn't be there to dance or watch in person 😢 Maybe next year.💞💃
Thank you for an opportunity to enjoy this awesome comp via Live Stream!
290 Photos from the Saturday Morning Session are now up. Saturday Afternoon Session Images will be uploaded tonight. photonphotographynz.pixieset.com/