MEET THE TEAM
MEET THE TEAM
Auckland and Tauranga
THE AUCKLAND TEAM
Administrator & Senior Pointe Fitter
LUCY SIMPSON
Lucy began dancing at two years old at her local dance school in the UK, where she learnt Ballet, Modern and her favourite, Tap, achieving up to Advanced 2.
Lucy graduated from University with a degree in Film & TV and worked throughout the UK on varying programmes and in London as ‘in-house’ staff for Film Production houses.
In 2010 she began working for Bloch in Sydney, where she was trained in and excelled at Pointe Fitting, which is still her passion. Lucy moved to NZ in 2011 and started working for Pure Dance soon after. She has worked as Shop Assistant, Retail Manager, Supply & Distribution Manager and Head Pointe Shoe Fitter. Thanks to her many roles at Pure Dance, she’s had the opportunity to visit Freed of London and take a factory tour, where she met the Pointe Shoe makers and learned about their craft, meet the lead Pointe Shoe designers for both Capezio in Melbourne and Bloch in Sydney and was a member of the team fitting professional dancers at RNZB and students at NZDS. Lucy loves helping ballet dancers of all levels find the right pair of pointes.
In 2018 she became a licensed Zumba instructor and continues to teach. Lucy is now working in her most significant role yet, as Mum to two (energetic and exhausting) children who she hopes will follow in her dancing footsteps.
Customer Service Manager & Pointe Fitter
LYNETTE MACLLWAINE
Lynette is based in Auckland’s Customer Service Manager, overseeing the Retail, Studio, Wholesale and online aspects of Pure Dance.
She is an experienced Retail Manager, having worked for Pure Dance for 10 years, and brings her experience as an ex professional dancer, dance teacher, dance studio owner, adjudicator of dance, and very importantly, as a mother of a dancer.
Lynette has a passion for assisting everyone with their dance needs. From the simplest request in online ordering, instore fittings and through to the complexity of remote pointe fittings which allow us to help dancers throughout NZ.
As one of Pure Dance’s long standing pointe shoe fitters, Lynette especially enjoys seeing the delight of a first-time student going onto pointe as well working with more experienced dancers to help them continue their pointe journey.
Lynette enjoys getting to know all her customers and loves welcoming Mums and their little ones, tweens and teens, studio owners, other retail store owners and production companies to our stores.
Team Leader & Pointe Fitter
GUYONN AURIAU
Guyonn, who grew up in the French countryside, graduated with honors from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in France.
Having danced professionally with renowned dance companies worldwide, Guyonn has performed in classical Ballets for CCN Ballet de Lorraine (France), the New York Theatre Ballet (a Cecchetti based company), Opéra-Théâtre de Metz (France), Grands Ballets Canadiens (Montreal), Compagnie Kunal Ranchod (Montreal), as well as Contemporary institutions including Martha Graham Dance Company (New York), Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d’Angers (France), Sydney Dance Company PPY, Cas Public (Australia).
During her professional experience, Guyonn has had the opportunity to perform in international tours across Russia, China, Turkey, USA, Europe and more. Since 2020, while also dancing professionally, she has been sharing her knowledge with students, teaching ballet and modern dance in both France and Canada. In her free time, she enjoys tutoring in both French and English and is a keen runner, often competing in half and full marathons.
Guyonn is eager to offer her expertise to visitors at Pure Dance, and to share her personal journey to enhance your experience.
Retail Assistant & Pointe Fitter
BRIAN JONES
Brian has had a dance career of some 50 years. Initially starting in Ballroom and Latin American, he also went on to dance ballet, jazz, theatre and contemporary before being introduced to Smooth and Rhythm.
He is principal of Dance Mechanics and is a qualified adjudicator in Ballroom, Latin American and New Vogue. Over the last twelve years he has been promoting DIVIDA syllabus in New Zealand, running workshops and dancing Pro/Am.
Brian has been involved heavily with DANZ (Dance Aotearoa New Zealand), a national dance body promoting and supporting the dance community in all its forms. His involvement has included helping develop dance resources for the organisation, taking workshops for teachers, working in schools as part of their support programme (LEOTC), writing articles for DANZ Quarterly, helping support the setting up of NZ Dance Week and as a mentor for dancers.
Over the years he has tutored in dance as part of the UNITEC Drama course, helped with the development of the Dance Degree at AUT (Auckland University of Technology), where he also ran the Jazz dance sector, managed the Short Courses Programme, along with the Dance Consultancy Service for schools. While there he helped with the organisation of an International Dance Conference where he also presented a workshop. Following that he has also worked as a guest tutor on the Performing Arts Degree (Dance) at The University of Auckland, with courses in Ballroom and Musical Theatre.
Brian is known by many for his time partnering Beatrice Faumuina on New Zealand’s, Dancing With the Stars, making it through to the final. He has worked on the show in several different capacities over six series and in his final series as Dance Producer.
Brian joined Pure Dance in the late 2000’s and has assisted many dancers at varying stages of their dance journey. You’ll find Brian in our Auckland store.
Retail Assistant & Pointe Fitter
SHAVRON MORTIMER
Born and raised in Rotorua, Sharvon is a Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland based dance artist. She graduated in 2020 as a senior scholar with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts - Contemporary Dance from Unitec, where she was awarded the ‘Excellence Award’ for Unitec Dance in 2018.
Sharvon along with Oli Mathiesen and Bohao (Bruce) Feng received the Judge’s Choice Award and Stage Manager’s Award for their work ‘FOSSE’ in 2019’s Short+Sweet Dance Festival.
Since graduating she has had the privilege of collaborating with some of Aotearoa’s most notable independent artists and companies including Footnote New Zealand Dance and The New Zealand Dance Company. In 2021 and 2022, she was part of NDN’s Tūrama choreographic Intensive. Sharvon presented new work with Oli Mathiesen (‘Night and Mortar) as part of NZ fringe 2021 and a Tāmaki Makaurau tour in 2022. ‘The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave’ created by Oli Mathiesen and choreographed and performed by Oli Mathiesen, Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer premiered this year. The work received the PANNZ Edinburgh Fringe Festival Summer Hall Award and NZ Fringe Festival’s ‘Most Momentous Movement Award’. The work also received The ‘Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready Award’ and ‘Sydney Fringe Tour Ready Award’ while at the NZ Fringe Festival. Sharvon has taught for multiple studios and is a regular teacher for Independance.
Sharvon joined the Pure Dance team in 2021. Utilising her own experiences as a dancer and her three years as a trained pointe shoe fitter, Sharvon strives to find each dancer the perfect shoe. She understands the importance of a good leotard and is passionate about helping dancers find what they need so they can put their best foot forward!