Zeal: A Hidden Treasure For Young Creatives
A place to make connections, explore your passions and learn new skills.
Zeal is so much more than just a big black building in the centre of Kirikiriroa Hamilton. Inside is a space for young creatives to explore their passions and learn new skills.
Zeal is a non-profit New Zealand youth organisation that provides a safe space for young creatives. It is a place where anyone is welcome. They value relationships, community, and safety.
Their mission is to “make transformative spaces and experiences accessible to all young people, supporting rangatahi to connect to their mana, innate self-worth and sense of belonging.”
They offer many programmes and courses for youth to learn creative skills like photography, song writing and dancing. They also hire out the venue to host different events, performances or to use as a rehearsal space.
Photo by: Paige Hare
Aniwa Haitana (26) is the founder of Headquarters NZ Dance company alongside his partner Logan Clendon. Aniwa has over 14 years of dance experience.
Having parents who both danced and doing kapa haka himself from a young age meant he grew in both spaces and found similarities between the two. This allowed him to interweave them as he gained skill in both areas.
Aniwa says he had no professional training until he was 20 years old and learnt only through YouTube videos. However, he has gone on to mentor many young people and shown them new ways of movement by sharing his knowledge and passion.
Aniwa is no stranger to Zeal, having used the space for many things including dance trainings, filming music and dance videos, photography shoots and performances.
When asked what he thought of Zeal as a creative space for young people he said, “it’s the perfect space.” Zeal is a place where anyone and everyone can come to share what they love.
“The space literally breathes creativity.”
Aniwa Haitana
They have all the facilities, including a kitchen, the auditorium which has a full sound and lighting system and recording studios.
“It’s just super perfect for youth.”
A reoccurring theme for Aniwa is the importance of people at Zeal, both those who work there and those who use the space. “The beauty of Zeal is the fact that it looks after our people, especially our youth.”
The space reflects the people. It is a warm, welcoming environment that is always filled with new faces. With those new faces come new skills to be shared.
Photo by: Paige Hare
Aniwa’s advice for young people wanting to give dance at Zeal a go was “just come and check it out, honestly you won’t regret it.”
You will gain so much more than just the ability to dance, “the number of doors [Zeal] will open is amazing.”
To learn more about the dance programme at Zeal, or any of the other courses they offer visit their website here.
