Marianne Schultz
Marianne Schultz, PhD, is a dancer, choreographer, writer, teacher, historian and performing arts archivist.
Born in the USA, she has lived primarily in New Zealand since 1986. Her works on dance and performing arts history have appeared in numerous international scholarly journals and she is the author of two books on performing arts history.
Photo: Lawrence Smith, Stuff Ltd.
E-Mail: marianneschultz57@icloud.com
Personal Profile
Experienced teacher, historian, writer, dancer, performer, archivist and arts advocate. A highly dedicated and committed individual who applies creative thinking and problem solving to a range of activities in the classroom, to written work and in historical research. She is the author of monographs, peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in edited collections. Her work focuses on dance and performing arts history in an international context.
Holder of both United States and New Zealand citizenship.
Work history
Royal New Zealand Ballet November 2022-present
Archivist
Responsibilities- Creating and executing an archival plan for the RNZB to facilitate the move back into their permanent home at the St James Theatre and producing a survey of the RNZB’s physical and digital archive, with recommendations for organisation and future management of the collection. I also assisted with the curation and wrote text for the RNZB 70th year exhibition that toured to the main centers in 2023.
Unitec/Te Pukenga 2021- present
Lecturer
Taught course, NZ and Contemporary Dance Whakapapa, for second year Contemporary Dance students, BPSA programme. Responsibilities- planning weekly content, organizing guest speakers, presenting lectures, marking assignments, entering grades. This is a second -year course tracing the development in contemporary dance and its significant artists in New Zealand.
New Zealand Dance Company May 2021-December 2021
Digital Content Creator and Archival Strategist
Responsibilities- Creating and executing an archival plan for the NZDC to preserve the history of the company. Facilitating the curation of a historical presentation of the first ten years of the NZDC in 2022. Create digital booklets that tell the story of the various productions, from initial ideas of works to final performances, of the NZDC over the past decade.
Tempo Dance Festival August 2021-December 2023
‘Living Archive’ leader
Responsibilities- initiating and developing a creative project to establish a ‘living archive’ online of the dance creatives, creative work and production processes delivered by Tempo Dance Festival over twenty-one years. Creating a long-term archival plan for Tempo Dance Festival. Curating online events reflecting the history of Tempo. Creating and inventory and spreadsheet of the Tempo archives. Curating public exhibitions of the Tempo archive.
Massive Theatre Company August 2022-March 2024
Project leader- Digital Archive project.
Responsibilities- developing digital archive to give a fuller-picture of the activities of Massive Theatre Company; present a contained history of Massive Theatre Company via a timelime of shows; provide insight into the working methods of Massive Theatre Company; highlight performers/creators of Massive Theatre Company productions; allow accessibility of this important resource for researchers, historians, teachers, students and theatre practitioners to archived material relating to the activities of Massive Theatre company since 1991.
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany New York August 2019- 2020
Adjunct Instructor- Humanities
Responsibilities-Present lectures and lead in-class instruction for Humanities 101 and Humanities 102. Devise assignments, including essay topics, exams and participatory discussions. Attend course meetings with other instructors. Co-ordinate and enter all grades. Conduct one-on-one meetings with students.
Achievements- Introduce innovate course material, including group movement and ‘ritual’ creations to enhance the experience of understanding the historical presence of ritual and gesture in the formation of civilizations and cultures. Teach online via ZOOM in response to Covid-19 lockdowns.
DANZ (Dance Aotearoa NZ) April 2015 - December 2017
Auckland Advisor
Responsibilities- Manage Auckland office, write grant applications, liaise with professional and community dance practitioners, organize and run community seminars, write articles for DANZ magazine, produce and curate public dance events.
Achievements – Successful Grant applications, including $90,000 from Foundation North. Curated and produced public dance performances with large audiences.
University of Auckland March 2007- November 2016
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Tutor), Examiner, Lecturer, course co-ordination in History.
Responsibilities - Co-ordinate class readings, teach classes, mark essays and exams, hold office hours for one on one student meetings, present guest lectures with extensive notes and PowerPoint presentations.
Achievements - Consistent student evaluations of over 90% satisfaction for seven years. Tutor-coordinator for History Department.
Foster Group December 2014 - present
Performer, teacher, co-deviser, Orchids, archivist
Black Grace Dance Company January 2005-August 2005
Rehearsal Director and Company teacher
University of Auckland January 2002- December 2004
Senior Dance Lecturer
Responsibilities- Devise and deliver courses in dance technique and dance history, co-ordinate class readings, teach classes, mark essays and exams, hold office hours for one on one student meetings, present guest lectures.
Achievements – Devised Dance History courses; taught studio-based dance courses; led and supervised Masters students in Dance (MCPA); wrote course material for collaborations between School of Music students and Dance students.
Teaching
History teaching includes several history courses at the University of Auckland including Global History, Sexual Histories, Re-Thinking New Zealand and Dance History. Studio Dance teaching portfolio includes teaching Contemporary Dance at London Contemporary Dance School; Contemporary Dance at the New Zealand School of Dance; Dance History and Contemporary Dance, The University of Auckland; Dance History, Contemporary Dance and Ballet, Unitec, in addition to company class all major dance companies in New Zealand. Humanities instructor for courses The Pre-Modern World and The Modern World at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany New York.
Choreography
In the 1990s I was a part of the choreographic collective, Merchants of Venus. Other members were Shona McCullagh, Felicity Molloy, and Debra McCulloch. This collective was a platform to present our own choreography in Wellington and Auckland.
Theatre
Auckland Theatre Company: Rocky Horror Show (2002)
Hair (2001)
Inside/Out Theatre So Far, opera, composer Gareth Farr, (2001)
Silo Theatre:
The Brothers Size (2011)
Three Penny Opera (2008)
Brel (2005)
NZ Opera: Viva Verdi (2001)
Film and Television
The Piano 1992 (Jane Campion, dir)
Xena, Warrior Princess 1994 (Pilot episode)
Public Speaking
Presented research papers in numerous national and international conferences since 1998 to present, including at Harvard University, University of North Carolina, Skidmore College, London College of Fashion, University of Newcastle, and Barnard College, for, among others, Society of Dance History Scholars /CORD, American Comparative Literature Association, Dance Research UK.
Education
Qualifications
University of Auckland PhD in History 2014
University of Auckland MLitt in History 2009
Middlesex University MA Performing Arts 1999
Skills
Content creator of digital archives
Creation of archival inventories/spereadsheets
Sole manager of the Auckland office of DANZ.
Tutor co-ordinator, History Department, University of Auckland.
Performer and Choreographer for several theatre and film productions.
Computer (Mac and PC) skilled, referencing, footnoting, digital and web-based research.
Teaching/Grading Academic courses via CANVAS and teaching online via ZOOM.
Research
Research Assistant- University of Auckland, 2021, History discipline. Assistant for Dr Cheryl Ware’s Marsden Fast-Start Grant project on the lives of women sex workers in New Zealand, 1978-2008.
Research Assistant- University of Waikato, 2021, History discipline. Assistant for Dr Charlotte Greenhalgh book project, Inner Lives: An Intimate History of Pregnancy in New Zealand, 1940s–2000s.
Completed 2 research Masters degrees and a PhD in History.
Researched and written several articles for newspapers, magazines and academic journals.
Publications
Monographs
Limbs Dance Company: Dance For All People, 1977-1989, (Auckland: DANZ, 2017).
Performing Indigenous Culture on Stage and Screen: A Harmony of Frenzy, (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016).
Chapters in edited collections
‘Authenticity and Illusion: Performing Māori and Pākeha in the early twentieth century’, in Music, Dance and the Archive, eds, Amanda Harris, Jakelin Troy and Linda Barwick, (Sydney University Press, 2022).
Winner of the 2023 Australian Society of Archivists’ Mander Jones Award.
‘Rising to the Surface’ in Renée Hollis, ed, Fear and Courage, (Chatswood, Exisle Publishing, 2019).
“An interest must be strong now-a- days to raise much enthusiasm in an audience”: Māori, New Zealand and Empire on Stage, 1862-1864’, in Tiziana Morosetti, ed., Staging the Other in Nineteenth-Century British Drama, (Oxford:Peter Lang, 2015).
‘Tracing the Steps of Modern and Contemporary Dance in Twentieth-Century New Zealand’ in Ralph Buck and Nicholas Rowe, eds, Moving Oceans: Celebrating Dance in the South Pacific, (Oxford, Routledge, 2013).
Peer-reviewed Journal articles
‘A ‘Harmony of Frenzy’: Māori in Manhattan 1909-1910’, Theatre Journal (USA), 67, 3, October, 2015, pp.445-464.
‘“Sons of the Empire”: Dance and the New Zealand Male’, Dance Research (UK), 29, 1, 2011, pp.19-42.
‘Phantom Limbs: Concert Dance in New Zealand from the 1930s to the 1980s’, New Zealand Journal of History, 45, 2, 2011, pp. 225-245.
‘The Best Entertainment of its Kind Ever Witnessed in New Zealand’: the Rev. Frederick Augustus Bennett, the Rotorua Maori Entertainers and the story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai’, Melbourne Historical Journal, 39, 2011, pp. 31-53, (winner- Greg Dening Memorial Prize).
‘Themes from an Unfinished Major Work’: The Wellington New Dance Group’, Brolga, (Australia) 29, December 2008, pp. 32-46.
‘Dancers as Mothers’, Not Just Any Body, Ontario, 2001, pp. 65-69.
Online Publications
The Sunday Essay- The Spinoff ‘Is there an age when you can no longer dance?’ December 3, 2023.
‘Through the Fence’, a personal essay, in Trolley, the online literary journal of the New York State Writers Institute (October 2021).
‘History of Contemporary and Modern dance in New Zealand’, Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, www.TeAra.Govt.NZ
Book Reviews
‘Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance 1945-1965’, Reviews in Australian Studies, vol. 4, 6, 2010.
Prizes, Awards, Scholarships
Judith Binney Trust 2025 Writing Award
Michael King Writer’s Centre 2025 Writer’s Residency
NYSCA/NYFA Covid relief Grant, non-fiction, literature, 2020.
Ministry of Culture and Heritage - New Zealand History Research Trust Award, 2017.
Creative New Zealand Writing Grant, 2017.
Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies, Publication subsidy Award, 2015
Greg Dening Memorial Prize, Melbourne Historical Journal, 2011.
Keith Sinclair Memorial Scholarship in New Zealand History, University of Auckland,
2012 and 2013.
Best Research, New Zealand documentary, Dance of the Instant (dir. Shirley Horrocks, Point of View productions) Documentary Edge Film Festival, 2010.
Jacob’s Pillow Research Fellow, 2008.
Professional Performing includes:
Foster Group, Orchids- 2017- present
Douglas Wright Dance Company - founding member 1989
Limbs Dance Company- 1987-1988
Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians - 1982-1986
Numerous freelance performances in NYC - 1980-1986
Eba Dance Theatre, Albany, New York - 1979-1980
Memberships
ADSA (Australasian Association of Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies)
ARANZ (Archives & Records Association New Zealand)
Dance Studies Association
Society of Dance Research
References
Associate Professor Jennifer Frost, Department of History, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand, 1020, New Zealand, j.frost@auckland.ac.nz
Professor Charlotte Macdonald, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, Room 416, Old Kirk Building, Gate 2, Kelburn Parade, charlotte.macdonald@vuw.ac.nz
Associate Professor Colleen McLaughlin, Founding Chair, Population Health Sciences, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 106 New Scotland Ave, Albany, NY, USA, Colleen.McLaughlin@acphs.edu
Carrie Rae Cunningham, carrierae@massivecompany.co.nz
