Your Committee
Jane Luiten, President
Jane discovered folk dance as a young mother, in Hamilton. Life has never been quite the same. She currently runs Good Folk: Dances from Planet Earth in Tūranga / Gisborne, offering monthly community dances and weekly folk dance workshops. She dreams of dance calling for multitudes and folk dance holidays abroad
Noelene Barr-Allwood, Secretary
Intrigued by her very first folk dance over 25 years ago, Noelene has since danced in many different locations dressed in various “across the border” costumes, as part of the Dance Folkus team based in Hamilton. Mother, farmer, local body administrator, and house renovator, Noelene now devotes part of her retirement to serving as secretary of Folk Dance NZ.
Betsy Houthuijzen, Treasurer
Six years ago, Betsy was looking for a form of exercise that would be sustainable throughout her retirement – folk dance was love-at-first-step. Betsy recently joined the committee because she is keen to continue to dance. Her background in bookkeeping is a perfect fit for the role of Treasurer. Betsy is a member of Good Folk in Gisborne.
Kieron Horide-Hobley, Editor / FDNZ Life Member
Has enjoyed dances and music from all over the world since 1987, when serendipity led him to an International Folk Dance event. Kieron has been a stalwart of FDNZ from early days, in a long-serving role as newsletter editor and FDNZ webmaster since 1997. Kieron lives and dances in Wellington.
Pascale Delos, Membership Officer
My interest for folk dancing surged late in life, while on a Contact Improvisation Dance retreat. Jane from Good Folk Tūranga had been offered a 2-hour slot at the end of it. I loved the joy, connection, movement and easy steps she got us to perform… we had a great time at once! Having been an awful dancer in class all my life – unable to retain steps and moves against rhythms – I had to join Good Folk as soon as I arrived in Gisborne and I haven’t looked back!
Fiona Murdoch, FDNZ Life Member
Fiona combines a lifetime of dance experience with a wealth of knowledge from ethnic, traditional and international folkdance workshops, master classes and festivals, both in NZ and abroad. Director of Dance Folkus in Hamilton, Fiona has been teaching recreational folk dance for more than 25 years. Her achievement in building a robust folk dance and music community was recognised in 2013 with a Hamilton Civic Award for services to community arts. Fiona is also dance caller extraordinaire!
Katy Sinton
Our representative from Te Wai Pounamu, Katy’s main interests lie with the dances, culture and costumes of southeast Europe, and she loves the way community is created through dancing together. She was chief instructor of Farandol Folkdancers in Christchurch for many years and also ran a popular dance group at the
Canterbury WEA.