Jennifer Carson (Left) and Mary-Jane McDonald (Right) with a dancer from Luisillio Spanish Dance Company 1967.

Nestled in Wellington's red-light district in 1967, a large draughty Marion Street warehouse was home to around eight students as they learned their repertoire and pointe classes.

Battling chilly conditions, all were first-year students in New Zealand's first full-time dance school – then called the National School of Ballet.

Fifty years later and the dance school has upgraded from the warehouse with wooden bumpy floors to more suitable studios in Newtown and under the new title: The New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD).

John Ashton Some of the first students outside the National School of Ballet in 1967.

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Mary Jane O'Reilly (nee McDonald) was about to head into her last year of high school in 1967 when she heard a new dance school was calling out for students.

"Nothing was available prior – there were no full-time dance schools in New Zealand, so I was extremely lucky to be ready to do a full-time course and they happened to start one, which was absolutely brilliant for me," the former Eastbourne native recalled.

John Ashton National School of Ballet 1967 Students, (Left to Right) Keryn Stone, Glenys Atkinson seated, Marsha Alderson, Patricia Smith, Jennifer Carson, Mary-Jane McDonald (standing), Karen Thompson, Michael Baker.

"I've been quite lucky all my life, with fate and timing".

Prior to then, dancers who wanted to become professional had no other option but to study overseas.

O'Reilly auditioned and received a scholarship for the school's two-year diploma.

JOHN ASHTON/NZSD A class shot in 1969, featuring Keryn Stone, Karen Thompson, Jennifer Carson, Marsha Alderson, Mary-Jane McDonald, Glenys Atkinson and Patricia Smith.

Photos show the class, with one male student, learning traditional ballet. It was a "crazy studio", O'Reilly recalled.

"It was [a] big, draughty, huge, great warehouse with a wooden floor – it was not conducive really – it was freezing cold in winter, actually freezing cold the whole time. It had high ceilings and a wooden floor – but that was all you could say for it really. It was pretty crude," she said.

Under the direction of the school's faculty, Sara Neil, Russell Kerr, Dorothy Daniels, Philip Chatfield and Rowena Jackson, and her drama mentor Richard Campion, O'Reilly went on to establish a career in dance, dancing with the Royal New Zealand Ballet before taking on its London equivalent.

John Ashton A class shot from 1969.

"It set me up, because I had been studying dance since I was four. I didn't suddenly decide to do ballet. I'm very privileged to have been able to do that for the last 50 years as well," O'Reilly said.

Her mum was also a dancer and thought it would be amusing to see her four-year-old daughter attempt to dance.

"Funnily enough, l had a knack for it so I kept on doing it," she said.

O'Reilly went on to co-establish Limbs Dance Company in 1977, choreographed the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in 1990 with a cast of 6000, and also the Millennium Dawn event in Gisborne.

In 1990, she choreographed the first, original three-act ballet ever commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Ballet – Jean, the ballet of Jean Batten and founded and directed the Auckland Dance Company from 1996 to 2001.

She said the scope of dance in New Zealand has changed enormously since she started out.

"Now, contemporary dance and ballet are two different streams. Whereas in my day it was only ballet, now there are two or three other full-time tertiary contemporary dance courses," she said.

"There's a lot more choice now if you want to study full-time dance after school – it's fantastic. And the profession has changed enormously. The standard is really high.

"There is more opportunity, still not much, but there is more opportunity to get a job in the dance profession."

These days she teaches ballet to adults, including adult beginners ballet classes, and produces and directs her neo-burlesque dance company In Flagrante.

"When people ask me what I do, I say I am a dance person," she said.

This year, the NZSD is celebrating its 50 year anniversary.

Director Garry Trinder said the school's driving force when it was first established was to provide well-trained dancers for the New Zealand Ballet which was to become the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) we know today.

To celebrate, the School will present a choreographed, eclectic mix of visionary contemporary dance and classical ballet with the RNZB to pay tribute to those who left their mark on the school and its graduating students. That programme runs from November 24 to 25. Visit nzschoolofdance.ac.nz for more information.