Darrius Strickland and Holly Tuhakaraina - who won Harcourts Dancing for Hospice 2024 as Barbie and Ken - will reign an extra year.
Darrius Strickland and Holly Tuhakaraina - who won Harcourts Dancing for Hospice 2024 as Barbie and Ken - will reign an extra year.
Rotorua has shown such strong support for the annual Harcourts Dancing for Hospice event that organisers can afford to slow things down a little, says Rotorua Community Hospice chief executive, Jonathon Hagger.
The charity has announced a smaller-scale — but no less glamorous — gala event will be held in place of the flagship fundraiser this year, and in future alternate years.
“Hospice is actually in a position where we’re able to do that, give everyone a breather,” Hagger told the Rotorua Daily Post.
The annual dancing competition launched in 2016 and Hagger said it had raised more than $1 million for the hospice, which provides palliative care to the community.
“Harcourts Dancing for Hospice has helped ensure our critical services remain free of charge for local whānau.”
At its biggest, more than 2300 people packed into Rotorua’s Energy Event Centre to watch 20 novice dancers perform routines learned over 16 weeks, with help from professional dancers.
“Our hospice team would [normally] start working on the big event in February and by the time everything’s done they would usually wrap about around the beginning of October,” Hagger said.
Event organisers and stakeholders were looking forward to returning next year, stronger and refreshed.
Dancing for Hospice had built a reputation as one of Rotorua’s “major black-tie events”, Hagger said.
The new event – Vegas: Showtime–would be smaller in scale and premiere in August.
Dancing for Hospice choreography partner Amjazz Dance Studios was on board, and Hospice aimed to raise $50,000.
“That will get us to reach our fundraising target for the year and then we’ll come back bigger and better.
“We will go back to that more significant fundraising target of $100,000 plus next year,” Hagger said.
Harcourts Dancing For Hospice 2023 winners Nicky Fraser and David Livingstone. Photo / Andrew Warner
He said Rotorua’s dancing fans, who loved the opportunity to get dressed up for a good cause, would not be disappointed.
“Bougie is what we’re going for … it will be an unforgettable evening of music, games and entertainment.
“Bright lights, big city, black tie. It’s got to be glam because that was a big part of the appeal of Dancing for Hospice. That is why it was so successful,” Hagger said.
Attendees went all out, buying new outfits and having hair and makeup done.
“There are all those other parts of the event that touched the Rotorua community, and that benefits so many other businesses and people in town.”
The people of Rotorua were the drivers of the event’s success. Past dancers — 160 in total — became “ambassadors” for the cause.
Some stakeholders wanted the event to happen this year to hit the 10-year anniversary next year, Hagger said.
“But when we’ve explained the cost of time and investment and the dancers’ commitment … we’ll still get to 10 shows.”
Rotorua Harcourts has been the main sponsors of the Dancing for Hospice event since it began in 2016.
Key sponsor backs change
Real estate company Harcourts Rotorua has been the main sponsor of Dancing for Hospice since it began, director Erin Kingston said.
“They’ve raised about $1 million since 2016 and demonstrated the power of the community.”
The company backed the “change in direction,” to ensure the event stayed “fresh and impactful while allowing for new and exciting initiatives” that supported the essential service.
“I think everyone knows someone or a family member or have an associate with someone that has [needed hospice] and I think we’re just really, really proud to sponsor an event like this,” Kingston said.
Darrius Strickland and Holly Tuhakaraina were the winners for Dancing for Hospice 2024.
2024 winners reign an extra year
Darrius Strickland and Holly Tuhakaraina won the Dancing for Hospice 2024 trophy with a Barbie-themed samba and will get to keep their crowns for an extra year.
Tuhakaraina said Strickland had the trophy but the extension meant they would both have another turn hosting it.
Tuhakaraina had been looking forward to returning and being a mentor, but did not mind waiting another year.
She said the change was good as it showed how much support Rotorua gave the hospice.
Strickland was a stranger before they were paired up and started training together four days a week.
“It didn’t alter my day-to-day life, I wasn’t doing much before this,” she said.
The best part of the experience was gaining “a little dance family”.
All the dancers started out a bit shy and unsure, but they helped boost each other’s confidence.
“We weren’t just couple versus couple, it was like, ‘We’re all gonna try to do this together’, so that’s what I thought was really cool.”
She said it was nice that “the whole town” got behind the event and supported the “important charity”.
Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. She moved to the region in 2024 and has previously reported in Wairarapa and at Pacific Media Network.
