King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours 2023: Sherilyn Hall recognised for services to Highland dancing

Being awarded a King’s Birthday Honour is the “pinnacle” of Sherilyn Hall’s more than 50-year career in Highland dancing.

The 74-year-old was set to retire this year and says becoming a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to highland dancing was the icing on the cake.

“It is the pinnacle of my dance career,” she said.

Hall said the email she received in April was “quite unexpected”.

“I was a little numb because it came out of the blue.”

Hall, who began dancing when she was about 6 years old, has been involved with Highland and national dancing for more than 50 years.

In the early 1950s, Hall said there was a ballet school and a Highland dance school near the home where she grew up in Hastings and her mother had to choose one.

“She chose Highland dancing,” Hall said.

The rest was history.

“It has just been a lifetime passion. I can’t see my life without it,” she said.

Since then, Hall has helped research and develop Highland and step dancing - including the Irish and Sailors Hornpipe - through the New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing, to allow it to continue for future generations.

Hall said Highland dancing was a “traditional art” embedded in history.

“You don’t want to lose something so special,” she said. “A lot of it comes down to the music, the strength of the movement, and the co-ordination.”

As a dance demonstrator in 1973, she spent time perfecting Highland, Irish, and Sailors Hornpipe dancing movements and demonstrating these at New Zealand conferences.

She said she loved going to conferences where she would get to meet other like-minded people who shared the same passion. “I have made lifelong friends.”

Hall was appointed as a trainee director at the New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing in 1990 before becoming the technical director in 1992. Over the years, she has led a team of up to 10 technical members with the support of the academy executive, overseeing the dance technique, management and maintaining the standardisation of examinations.

She has led training courses and workshops throughout the years at various levels and has tutored dancers of all ages at the New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing annual dance development course.

On the international stage, Hall has helped take dance teams overseas to perform on three occasions at the International Military Tattoos in Norfolk, Virginia, and three international Highland dance conferences in Las Vegas.

“I have also had the privilege of tutoring at two workshops in the academy’s step dance technique while in Las Vegas.”

Hall was awarded life membership to the New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing in 2011. She served as dance director of the Piping and Dancing Association of New Zealand and was awarded life membership in 2015.

Some of Hall’s career highlights include developing the Let’s Dance syllabus for pre-schoolers, an over-18 Highland dance assessment for senior dancers only, restructuring the Irish syllabus and developing oral theory into examinations.

Hall wanted to thank her late dance teachers, her late mother for pointing her in the direction where her passion has led to today, and her husband Don Hall and children Steven Hall and Amanda Hall for their patience and support over the years.

“Dancing holds you in good stead for life. What I have learned in dance remains with you for life,” she said.

“I am grateful for being awarded this recognition of what I have done over the years. It is a testament to the people around me past and present.”