Each year around 10,000 Maori and Pacific Island students from Auckland Secondary Schools gather at the Manukau Sports Bowl, Manukau City to compete for the top honors.

For the past 4 years Cut Above students from our South Auckland Campus have supported the event by offering free makeup services along with The Edge.

a 20-strong panel of independent industry experts from both Australia and New Zealand spent two full days scrutinising almost 200 entries to reach the finalist section.

a big congratulation to CUT ABOVE ACADEMY for making the finals for EDUCATION ORGANISATION OF THE YEAR.

Winners will be announced Queens Birthday Long Weekend, June 9-11 2012.

Beautiful, stylish and fashion focused, the winner of our competition will be the ‘face of the Academy 2012/2013′

For more details email info@cutabove.co.nz

Now in its sixth year, the NZ Body Art Awards event has been strongly supported each year by the Cut Above Academy.  Superbly presented by creative director Mem Bourke, the event has kick-started the careers of many of our graduated, who are out there in force making great names for themselves in the NZ makeup industry.

Notable Cut Above Alumni who have excelled at NZBA – and current students who competed this year include:

Bianca Fallon: graduated 2000, head of makeup Maori Television, Snapstar blogger

Kelly Isherwood: graduated 2001, freelancer, impressive stage and screen credits

Miranda Raman: graduated 2002: freelancer, impressive string of stage and screen credits

Philip Hekatoa, graduated 2002, Cut Above tutor, impressive credits, winner NZBA Masquerade 2007

Michelle Perry: graduated 2005, free-lancer, head of makeup Wearable Arts Awards

Amanda Mace: graduated 2005, freelancer, impressive portfolio of stage and screen credits

Magdalena O’Connor: graduated 2006, freelancer, frequent winner, Youth-town art director

Hayley Marlowe: graduated 2007, free lancer, currently working at Weta on The Hobbit

Celeste Strewe: graduated 2007, free-lancer, credits include Spartacus, All Saints, The Lycans

Kelly Zhong-ni Ren: graduated 2008, free-lancer, Supreme winner 2009, director RensFX

Casey Turner: graduated 2009; free-lancer, impressive stage and screen credits

Abbie Taylor: graduated 2010, free-lancer, credits include Sweeney Todd, Wizard of Oz

Erin Harrison: graduated 2010, free-lancer, director Creative Faces, Supreme Award 2010

Adrian Joseph: graduated 2010; free-lancer, winner NZBA emerging artist 2009

Angela Pethig: Cut Above tutor; – brought the house down this year with her highly commended entry: Snow White and the 7 Dwarves

Current student competitors: 

Joanna Gui-Xia Qin; Competitor in the Masquerade Category

Sarah McClure; Competitor in the Weta Workshop Best Creature Award

Stacey Taylor; Competitor in the Thin Lizzy World of Fluorescent Illusion

Kate Donaldson: Winner of the Weta Workshop Special SFX award

Tinamarie Tinirau: Winner of the Maori Television/ Cut Above Head Start Scholarship

Della Halsall: Competitor in the Novice Hand-Painting Category

And congratulations to newcomer Sofia Bue Pederson- Who won the Cut Above Academy Best Emerging Artist award of a 1-year scholarship at Cut Above.

Congratulations to Cut Above Creative Director Eve Whale – who trained the student team – and did pretty darn well herself!

Pictured: Model – Kate Donaldson, Stylist – Eve Whale, Make-up Artist – Trudi Boyd

Eve won first place in the SMG Urban Fashion Cut and won the Top Cutting Award for 2011.

Congratulations also to Senior Hairdressing tutor Sylvester Van Eck – who was placed third in the Directional Fashion Cut event and fourth for Directional Colour

AND our students excelled themselves in the Apprentice Styling Sweepstake event taking the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places.

Congratulations to the winner: Haine Mauheni of our Manukau Campus (pictured below with model) second place-getter Ella Macedo of the City Campus, third place-getter Tenielle Gillies of the City Campus and fourth place-getter

Hae-rin Lee of the City Campus.

Everyone can’t win – but we believe everyone’s a winner who gives it a go and helps keep our hairdressing industry standards up there with the rest of the world!

Warmest congratulations and thanks to all who entered, and trained hard with the team:  Our tutors Dylan Quinn, Denise Paul, John Cobb, Siope Tuungafasi and

our students Rebecca Morris, Hulita Ofa, Supatra Bennett, Kerri Thomassen, Naydiene Kimi & Ngaupokoariki Mahani.

For more photo’s visit our facebook on www.facebook.com/cut.above1

Congratulations to the nine contestants – and three models who made the day!!!

The Winner: Poison Ivy

Second Runner–up: Queen of Hearts

Third Entry: Black Swan

http://www.thealist.co.nz/events/mozart-goes-gaga-backstage

http://www.thealist.co.nz/events/mozart-goes-gaga

 Those of us who were around in the 1970s will remember the heartbreaking images of babies fathered by American GIs, who were abandoned in Vietnam when the men were repatriated home.  It was one of these images – a photo of a Vietnamese mother leaving her baby at the departure gate at Tan Son Nhut Airbase to give the child the chance of a better life with his ex-GI father in America – that   inspired Schonberg, Boubil and Maltby to create the musical Miss Saigon. Based on the opera Madam Butterfly, Miss Saigon tells the tragic tale of an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover, who sacrifices her beloved son – and ultimately her own life- to ensure her child’s future.  The setting is updated from 19^th century Japan to the war-torn Vietnam of the 1970s, and the doomed romance of Puccini’s American Lieutenant and Japanese Geisha is replaced by the ill-fated love affair of an American GI and a Vietnamese bar-girl, but the central idea in both tales is self-sacrifice.

Not the most cheerful material for a musical entertainment, you might think, but, as one critic wrote, North Shore Music Theatre’s production ‘would receive rave reviews in London or New York’. Their creative team surpassed itself with beautiful costumes and magnificent set designs, including a celebration of the USA that filled the stage with red, white and blue-lit stars; a pyrotechnics display; a live Statue of Liberty, and a stilt-walking Uncle Sam. The grim reality of the GIs fleeing from the US embassy roof – with the thundering helicopter virtually bursting onto the stage – served as stark contrast to the gaud and glitter of Bangkok’s red-light district.

All this brilliance presented a challenge for the Cut Above makeup team to match the visual excellence of the production. Led by their tutor Ali Brill, the students researched the musical’s history; studied other productions on the internet; attended pre-production meetings with the costume designer, director, and cast, and produced their own visual storyboards of make-up designs for the director’s approval.  As backstage crew their services were then required for pre-show photo and TV  publicity sessions,  and make-up , hairstyling,  dressing and props assistance for all the evening and matinee performances over the three-week season at the Civic Theatre.

Miss Saigon is one of the longest running musicals of all time- and it continues to stir audiences to compassion for the downtrodden victims of war zones.  It is also a simple and moving love story of a young girl’s progress from naive country girl to a courageous woman taking control of her own destiny.  However, due to unbelievable makeup, some of its early productions drew criticism of the portrayal of Asian men and women, and comparisons to a minstrel show!  Therefore, because it was impossible for the North Shore Music Theatre to source an-all Asian cast, it was essential that the actors’ make-ups were believable.  Fortunately the techniques and materials for ethnic make-up effects have improved radically since Miss Saigon’s early days. There is a far wider choice of colours, and the latest prosthetic makeup products are vastly superior.  Nevertheless  the Cut Above students spent hours with their tutors  perfecting the application of eye prostheses and the design of totally believable make-ups to simulate Asian features and complexions.

http://www.facebook.com/Amici.Productions.NZ#!/video/video.php?v=10150249430118222

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/5021304/Photos-Miss-Saigon-rehearsals

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/north-shore-times/4982833/Artist-faces-a-big-test-in-Singapore