Katie Burton

Contemporary Tutor

Katie Burton trained at Unitec and graduated with her Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts majoring in Contemporary Dance in 2001. Katie is a freelance choreographer, dancer, teacher and artist coordinator based in Auckland, New Zealand.

This year Katie was an artist liaison on the NZ International Arts Festival in Wellington, working as part of Amy Sinclair’s team.

In 2009 Katie received the Tup Lang Scholarship from Creative New Zealand, enabling her to travel to the University of North Carolina to work with Larry Lavender. Katie also spent time in New York City completing an internship at the Movement Research Centre.

Also in 2009, Katie presented dance work as part of ‘Self Portrait’, in the NZ and Auckland Fringe Festivals. Katie choreographed a work ‘Carry The Boy’ for Footnote Dance Company and ‘after zero and before two’ for the first year dance degree students at Unitec. Katie also undertook the role of cast and crew coordinator for the WOW World of Wearable Art Awards Show, having previously worked on the show as Assistant Choreographer since 2003.

Over the past nine years, Katie has choreographed commercial dance work for Fifa, BMW, The Bledisloe Cup and TVNZ. Katie has choreographed her own contemporary dance work for Footnote Dance Company, NZ, and Dunedin Fringe Festivals. Katie is a glowing robot dancer for Vospertron, performing at various venues in NZ, Australia, Spain and India.

Katie was a founding member of Vacuum PACT Dance Company, both choreographing and dancing in their Creative New Zealand funded workshop (2005), The Lens (Tempo 2003), Roam (Hamilton Garden Festival 2003) and their Vacuum Packed National Tour (Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, Dunedin 2002).

Katie is a regular contemporary technique tutor and choreographic advisor for the Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts, The Performing Arts School of NZ, and Marian McDermott School of Dance.

Class Description

I am interested in utilizing technique class as a way to move the body in an organized and efficient way. I follow a traditional class structure, moving from the floor, to standing alignment work, locomotive phrases and generally a large jumping sequence to finish. My class is phrase based, and all are choreographed carefully to music. I love moving fast and pushing through space. Feedback from students/peers about my class usually involves the word ‘fun’. I think it’s important to have a good time!

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