Cadence Barrack joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet as a guest dancer in 2018’s Dancing with Mozart tour, performing in George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, and again in the RNZB’s production of The Nutcracker by Val Caniparoli later that year. In 2019, she became one of the RNZB’s first apprentices in the programme launched by former RNZB Artist Director Patricia Barker. Cadence was promoted to Artist in mid-2019.

Cadence danced in the 2024 revival of Russell Kerr’s Swan Lake as a Cygnet, in the Pas de Trois in Act One, and in the Neapolitan Divertissement in Act Three. In 2023, she performed the La Papillon pas de deux for Tutus on Tour, as one of Juliet’s friends in Romeo and Juliet, and as Little Russians in George Balanchine’s Serenade. In 2022, Cadence performed Step-Sister Nicolette in Loughlan Prior’s Cinderella, and danced in Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet, Waltz of the Pohutukawa Flowers from Val Caniparoli’s The Nutcracker, Olivier Wevers’ The Sofa, Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Autumn Ball and Twyla Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles™. In the digital season Ballet Bites, she performed in Andrea Schermoly’s Within Without. Her other roles with the RNZB have included Moyna in Giselle, Paquita 1st Variation, and Mustardseed in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021). Other highlights include the Fairy of Joy and the White Cat in The Sleeping Beauty (2020).

Born and raised in Auckland, Cadence started training pre-professionally at the Philippa Campbell School of Ballet in Auckland. At sixteen, she moved to Wellington to train at the New Zealand School of Dance and graduated from the classical programme in 2018.

Cadence was a 2015 participant in the RNZB’s National Mentor Programme, where she was mentored by long-serving company member Yang Liu. In 2016, Cadence competed in the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York, as well as the Royal Academy of Dance Genée Award in Sydney.

Cadence is sponsored by Avis.

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Serenade: the beauty of the collective

This ballet draws on the impact of a stage full of dancers celebrating the pure visual beauty of ballet. No one dancer shines; together they create a mesmerising feast for the eyes.