About Us
At Aurora Dance we believe in the power of movement, expression, and creativity, we nurture the connection between body and soul, and we create a professional and fun learning environment specifically designed for young dancers.
Through our classes, students will be given the opportunity to improve fine-motor and physical skills such as coordination, body awareness, stamina, and balance, whilst also allowing for creative expression and movement development. We encourage students to learn at their own pace in a welcoming and inclusive environment. All children are invited to participate in our classes regardless of their confidence, skill level, or gender.
Ballet
"The Royal Academy of Dance is one of the world’s most influential dance education and training organisations, with its global headquarters in London. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to dance."
We offer classes in classical ballet for all ages through the RAD (Royal Academy of dance).
The RAD’s patron is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and our President is Dame Darcey Bussell, DBE. With 13,000 members in 89 countries and offices in 36, we have an incredible global network of passionate and skilled employees, teachers and members, each shaping and influencing the future of dance.
Our higher education programmes are regulated and a recent Ofsted inspection found the RAD to be an ‘outstanding’ provider of initial teacher education. The RAD’s examinations are recognised by Ofqual and contribute to UCAS points.
There are currently over 1,000 students in full-time or part-time dance teacher training programmes and each year the RAD’s renowned classical ballet examination syllabus is taught to thousands of young people worldwide, with around a quarter of a million pupils per year going on to take our exams.
Established in 1920 by a group of eminent dance professionals representing the leading ballet styles of the period with the aim of improving the standards of dance teaching, initially in the UK, our founders would be proud of their legacy.
To learn more about the Royal Academy of Dance
Jazz, Contemporary, Acrobatics and Musical Theatre
We offer Jazz (Jazz Addict), Contemporary (Lucidity), Acrobatics (Agility) and Musical Theatre (Encore) classes in Junior, Intermediate and Senior levels through the Asia Pacific Dance Association (APDA)
"Our mission is to inspire dance students and teachers worldwide. We do this by providing regularly updated, comprehensive syllabus choreography via online tools and teaching resources. These learning tools, combined with the personal service and support of the APDA office, enables teachers to deliver quality syllabi with confidence."
Dance studios across Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Thailand, Taiwan, South Africa and the United Kingdom offer the APDA dance curriculum.
Meet the Team
Aurora Dance Studio team 2025
Owner/Opperator
Shannon Nuttall
Teaching the community to love the art of dance over the past 11 years has been a strong passion of mine, I enjoy watching my dancers go on a journey of self and technical development in the studio and in the real world. I love working with other local creative businesses in Selwyn, to help build performing arts in our community.
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Teacher
Laura Walker
Laura has been dancing since the age of 8, beginning in jazz and eventually branching out into all styles including ballet, contemporary, hiphop and musical theatre. At the age of 16 she began training as a junior tutor, and ever since she has loved being a part of her students’ dance journeys. She has trained in and taught many different syllabi including BBO, NZAMD, RAD, ATOD and APDA.
Administrator
Catherine McHaffie
Catherine is a professional fitness instructor and dance teacher who has been dancing since the age of 3. She specialises in fitness and conditioning with a dance focus and has a background in contemporary, ballet, jazz and aerobics. With a plentiful career in social services and administration behind her, she has combined her passion for dance and skills in admin to come onboard as our administrator.
She also co-owns and operates Pivot Dance Fitness with Laura Walker. Catherine loves the inclusive and supportive environment ADS offers to their dancers and loves to support anyone who wants to learn and develop a love for dance.
Teacher
Kezia Knight
Kezia has been dancing since she was 5; learning styles like jazz and tap, but after discovering musical theatre at the age of 8 she hasn't looked back! And as of 2026, she has been learning and performing musical theatre for 18 years! She specialises in teaching musical theatre, and has also taught drama with Play! Drama Workshops.
Teacher
Maia Cook
This year Maia is a year 13 student at St Andrew’s college and will be her last year of dancing with St Andrew’s ballet company. She will be working towards completing solo seal in 2024 which is the last exam involved with St Andrew’s College dance.
In the future Maia is looking into studying early child education as she enjoys being surrounded with the energy of younger children and very much enjoys her time with our younger dancers.
Teacher
Oceane Cannon
Oceane has been passionate about dance from a very young age, beginning her training at just four years old. Throughout her journey, she has attended numerous dance schools across New Zealand, each contributing to her development as a versatile and dedicated dancer. While ballet has always been her primary focus, Oceane has also received extensive training in a variety of other styles, including Jazz, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, Acrobatics, and even Country Dancing, showcasing her wide-ranging abilities and love for all forms of movement.
Teachers in training 2026
Isabel Hawes
Sophie Tunley
Emily Millar
Teaching Assistants 2026
Seniors
-Paige Chemaly
-Sammy Voyce
-Lucy Martin
-Elsie Blyth
-Paige Mitchell
-Emily Zhang
-Indie Stevens
-Chantelle Erskine
-Maddie Ward
-Sia Johnston
Juniors
- Alex Ball
-Kendall Maitland
-India Smithies
-Emily Calvert
-Isla Holcroft
-Karlia Sullivan
