The stage is set for an ornate performance which makes all the right moves for Nelson Tasman Hospice.
Months of rehearsal by 10 local personalities and their trained ballroom dance partners will dazzle at the Trafalgar Centre on this Friday and Saturday for NBS Dancing for a Cause 2025.
Vying for this year’s title are Sport Tasman chief executive Ed Shuttleworth, Motueka South School deputy principal Lauretta Haskell, Four Square Brightwater owner Anna Hay, Norriss Building owner Ritchie Norriss, and Telfer Electrical Wholesalers owner Steph Collett.
Nelson’s 2023 National Party candidate and World Bank consultant Blair Cameron, Nelson City councillor Campbell Rollo, BNZ financial adviser Jayde Howe, The Car Company sales consultant Wendy Blincoe, and national programme manager for Discover Forestry NZ, Rhys Black completes the list.
Their partners include defending champion, and Rhys' wife, Hazel Black, Anthony Hewson, Brooke Silke-Atkins, Craig Tobin, Derryn French, Lauren Phyfer, Oliver Black, Rebecca Higham and Zara Fowler.
Organiser and dance instructor Emma Silke-French says the Dancing for a Cause and Nelson Tasman Hospice boards “can’t wait”.
“The best outcome is going to be lots of money raised for Hospice, lots of awareness about what Hospice does in our community and helping to make it sustainable for years to come,” she says.
“Most importantly, I would like the contestants to walk off the dance floor feeling like they have just done the absolute best job.”
Nelson Tasman Hospice provides palliative care services for people with life-limiting illnesses, supporting them, their whānau and carers, through illness, death and bereavement.
Its services are free of charge, but the organisation requires 48 per cent of its annual operation costs – around $4m - to come from the community, sponsors or its Hospice shops.
Emma says the 2025 contestants' rapport was the brightest out of the previous year's events, and she and fellow dance instructor Sally Gordon reckon they could take up side careers in professional dancing.
“On Sundays we have practices, and most of the contestants are all there together, and watching them support each other doing their dances is a beautiful thing to watch,” she says.
“We have encouraged all of our contestants, to go back and look at their first video that we took of them at their first lesson to see how far they've come, and they go from counting steps to dancing steps which is lovely.”
Emma says the final tally is moving on up to topple the $440,000 raised in the 2023 event and the fundraising efforts by all contestants were “nothing short of amazing”.
They’ve included galas, raffles, quiz nights, a G.J. Gardner home build and a 210km run.
The contestants' moment in the spotlight over the two nights will be given scores out of 10 by professional dance instructor judges Vanessa and Scott Cole, who were regulars on Dancing with the Stars NZ, and former Dancing with the Stars NZ judge Alison Leonard.
Emma says each contestant’s dance style won’t be made public until the opening night.
Along with the winning duo, declared by judges scores, a People’s Choice award also gets decided by the audience.
Donations remain open for Nelson Tasman Hospice through the Dancing for a Cause event until 21 May - visit: dancingforacause.co.nz to donate.
