Ariana Hond - Classical Tutor
Ariana grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, training with Mt Eden Ballet Academy. Supplementary to her training in Auckland, Ariana was a classical Junior Associate with the New Zealand School of Dance and attended summer intensives on scholarship in America, England and Australia. She was fortunate to compete in many local and international competitions, such as the RAD Genée where she won the silver medal and audience award, the Alana Haines Awards where she was a junior winner and senior finalist, and the YAGP as a New York finalist.
At 16, Ariana moved to Brisbane to join the pre-professional program at Queensland Ballet. Within 3 months she performed in her first professional production, Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, as part of the corps de ballet. After two years with Queensland Ballet, Ariana joined Melbourne City Ballet where she performed in a number of new contemporary works, as well as classical soloist roles like Aurora, Lilac Fairy and Carmen. Over the years Ariana has been a guest performer across Australasia, and has had the opportunity to learn from an incredible range of teachers, choreographers and directors.
In 2018, Ariana decided to change career paths, and before coming home travelled to China to teach English (and also taught some ballet). In 2019 she began studying full-time at the University of Auckland, following on from part-time study with the University of Melbourne. She is now in her final year of an undergraduate degree majoring in Psychology and Sociology.
Currently, Ariana teaches ballet to children and adults, mostly on an individual coaching basis, and occasionally dances in a freelance capacity. She really enjoys being involved in passing on knowledge to future generations of dancers and is excited to see the work that Classical Collab creates!