Montpellier Calling Me

My name is Oliver Connew. I'm a New Zealand dancer and choreographer, though for the past six years I've lived and worked in Berlin, Germany, Europe's cultural powerhouse. Since moving here after my dance training at the New Zealand School of Dance and at Unitec's contemporary dance programme, I've worked with some exceptional choreographers and performed all over Europe. In this time I've been very happy as well to have made it back to New Zealand a couple of times to create and perform my own work.

Most recently, wishing for time and good resources to deep dive into a development of my own choreographic practice, I embarked on a search for a Master of Choreography programme that could suit my work and its ambitions. The first to invite me to audition was the Exerce Master of Choreography, which has its home at the Insitut Chor�ographique New Zealand (ICI) in Montpellier, France.

During their audition I could sense in the programme a real valuing of the dancing body as well as an expectation of rigor and radicality of practice, which is I think a rare combination and which impressed me a lot. This feeling gave me the confidence to believe that this was the place where my work could really flourish.

So, as one might expect, it was an ecstatic moment for me when I received an invitation to join their two-year programme in September 2019, just one of six artists to do so.

I am beyond excited to be heading into this new chapter and am seriously looking forward to getting down to work there. It is a brilliant programme and attracts some of the most accomplished and interesting artists and tutors from around the world. It will be a privilege to be able to work in such an esteemed environment.

[You can check out the programme yourself here on their website: http://ici-ccn.com/en/pages/master-exerce/pr%C3%A9sentation]

Collaboration between students is emphasised in the programme and I'm certain I will gain greatly from the relationships I form with my fellow artists - who too come from all corners of the globe including Ivory Coast, Brazil, Israel and Canada - while I work on my own choreographic and dance research.

I'm unlikely to have the ability during these two years in Montpellier to make it back home, but I look forward to being able to eventually share my development with Aotearoa, on its stages and in its studios, once I finish the programme. (That'll be 2021!)

Before any of this can happen though, there is a bit to organise: there's a French visa to obtain, accommodation to find, a new language to "master" and I'm still a little unsure about how I'm going to get my bed, bike and books down there. But perhaps more pressing than that right now is the money matter.

Remarkably - to this New Zealander - the course fees are more or less entirely covered by the French government and the university itself. This leaves me just my living costs to worry about.

For this campaign I am asking for NZ$7,500 (4,500EUR). This amount is enough to cover my accommodation costs for one year. In my dizzying dreams, I hope to receive somewhat more than that. With NZ$10,000 (6000EUR) from Boosted, and a bit of regular work on the side, I'll be able to get through my first year relatively stress free and able to really focus on my artistic work. Anything above this would put me in good stead to handle my second year starting in 2020.