Meet Our Staff And Teachers

Lisa Wilkinson - Kāi Tahu/Kāti Pākehā - Founder/Principal/Teacher

Lisa has been dancing as a teacher, choreographer, and performer for 30 years. During her early years, she performed with companies in Ōtautahi including Dance Core, Scrambled Legs Physical Theatre Company, and her first company, which toured Europe and India in the mid-90s.
After moving to Ōtepoti in 1998 and training as a Primary School Teacher and Performing Arts major at the University of Otago, Lisa went on to establish Rasa School of Dance and Rasa Dance Company in 2003. Central to Rasa’s philosophy is Houora - total well-being. Lisa believes dance is good for the mind, body, spirit and encourages dance for all - a lot of Rasa's principles are guided by Lisa’s time spent training and teaching at Dance Corporate Studios in the 80s and 90s and Lisa passes this on to her students who train and then teach at Rasa. The success of Rasa over the last 17 years speaks highly of Lisa’s ability as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. In addition to the school’s success, Lisa/Rasa has been involved in many contemporary works, including HipHopALooRap 2003, Floorspace 2004, Dance the Night 2004, Dance is Good for You 2005, and hundreds of collaborations with other artists and companies such as Dance Lab, Slightly Synthetic, Un-Co Productions and Pretty Gay Productions. Lisa also facilitates Rasa’s involvement in Hip Hop competitions, teaching in schools, holiday programs, and performing at corporate and community events. A highlight of Lisa’s career was meeting Janet Jackson. In her downtime, she loves to spend time with her extended whanau and as many animals as possible. Rasa has been donating to animal charities since 2003 and encourages anyone who can to please do the same.

Hi everyone,

I’m Tara, I run Rasa with Lisa :-) I’m the person who processes your enrollments, sends emails, invoices, and answers any questions you may have. I can be found in the office during the times that the youngest students are in class (in case anyone gets forgotten at pick up times, I’ll be the one calling you on your cell phone with a reminder and drying any potential tears until you arrive!)

I’ve been involved with Rasa since 2004, our daughter started dancing at the school, and I became a member of the Rasa whanau soon after. While I myself do not dance, I have a background in visual arts and strongly believe the arts can enhance so many aspects of our lives, make us critical thinkers, broaden our world view, increase our confidence, creativity and generally, just make us feel good! It’s a beautiful thing to watch our students blossom and find their joy!

I have been a teacher at Rasa since 2010 and absolutely love being affiliated with such a positive and inclusive dance school!

I’m trained in ballet, modern jazz, and hip hop and I have taught dance for over 20 years. My dance evolution began when I started choreographing with friends in high school and we formed the crew NuZtylez - Our goal of performing on the World stage quickly evolved to performing and working alongside youth in the community, inspiring others and spreading the love of performing arts. NuZtylez was invited by the Australian Arts commissioner to tour South Australia to perform in low decile schools and homeless shelters - One of the most memorable dance experiences I have ever had as seeing how dance can touch and change lives was priceless!

I’ve represented our country at different World HipHop competitions, danced and choreographed in music videos, international movies, numerous national and international events, and opened for many hip hop music concerts. I’ve also managed and choreographed a commercial performance group called ‘The Otago Dancers’ (now ‘Nugget Dancers’) for the past 14 years.

A couple of my choreography highlights: Choreographing halftime entertainment for the All Blacks, being the Choreographer on a Blumhouse Productions Hollywood movie and a Netflix film. Commissioned Choreographer for CityMoves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N189A813CGo&t=307s