New fellow fuses dance and arts with science

Daniel Belton's choreographic fellowship is worth $65,000. Photo / Supplied

Choreographer and dance-film-maker Daniel Belton has been awarded the Creative New Zealand Choreographic Fellowship, worth $65,000.

The fellowship aims to give a choreographer some financial freedom, enabling them to spend time creating a new work.

"[This] will enable me to focus on innovative new choreography for the screen in an exciting fusion of dance and visual arts with science," Dunedin-based Belton said yesterday.

Alan Sorrell, chairman of the arts board of Creative New Zealand, said Belton was one of New Zealand's leading dance-film choreographers whose work was characterised by innovation and a multi-disciplinary approach.

A scholarship graduate from the New Zealand School of Dance, Belton has performed with a wide range of companies in New Zealand and Europe, including the Douglas Wright Dance Company (NZ/Europe), Arc Dance Company (London/Europe) and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London).

In 1997, he founded Good Company Arts with Donnine Harrison. Under his artistic directorship, the group gained an international reputation for their unique multi-disciplinary approach involving commissions of dance, visual art, haute couture, design, new music, animation and film.

- NZPA