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Our presenters

Abram Shamon

Abram has been teaching languages for decades – he is an accomplished Arabic tutor and also a very experienced ESOL English language tutor. Starting his teaching career in Iraq he moved to New Zealand in 2000. From 2003 – 2020 he worked at MCLASS (now called Kiwiclass) as an English tutor -helping many students to learn and improve their English skills. Abram is passionate about helping any learners he works with to better understand and be able to use the language they are learning with him. Abram offers an Arabic course and tutors some ESOL classes. He is fluent in several languages including English, Arabic and Farsi.

Alex White

Alex has over 20 years of dance experience, after having lived and trained in Argentina.  He's developed a strong passion for dance and has been one of the pioneers of bringing Latin dance to Wellington, teaching since 1997 around NZ and Australasia. Currently Wellington and Hawkes Bay-based, he teaches regular dance lessons and hosts social dance events.

He regularly teaches and performs at charity functions, as well as corporate performances and in schools.

For more info see www.dancetango.co.nz

Alexis Murti

Alexis comes from Otaki and regularly holds workshops about food, whether it be cheese making, pasta making, sausage making or preserving, for groups at private functions, through to team building events for corporates.

Passionate about fresh, good quality food (especially from her own garden!), Alexis loves to pass on her knowledge to others. 

http://www.curiouscook.co.nz/

Ali Little

Formally, Ali has an Advanced Diploma in Art & Creativity and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (Communications).   She worked as a corporate weasel for 20 years, facilitating corporate stakeholder relations and the strategic conversation.  Yup.  


Then Ali met improv at a Wellington Improvisation Troupe beginner’s class at the Wellington Community Education Centre.  There was a lot of laughing.  The other students were playful and supportive, variously shy or bold, everyone had fun.   A ridiculous amount of fun.   It was the start of a happy and strange creative journey, although Ali originally only signed up to help improve her public speaking skills.

During her time with WIT Ali has performed in and produced shows, taught workshops, taken workshops with some of the best improvisors in the world, made an improvised short movie, built a Gorilla, traveled from Wellington to Loose Moose in Canada and Improvention in Canberra, made, exhibited and performed with masks and puppets, been on the committee several times and had a whole lot of fun taking photographs of shows.   

She is currently a Co-Creative Director of WIT.

Alice (Xin) Huang

I am currently employed by the Open Polytechnic as the team lead for the principal learning designer team. Before that I was a senior learning designer for 9 years. I am a qualified Learning and Development professional who has worked as a facilitator, training manager and instructional designer in the private and public sector within New Zealand and overseas

I have been practicing calligraphy since I was little. I enjoyed observing the interactions between ink and inkstone and feeling the brush traveling through Xuan paper, a high quality rice paper specifically made for Chinese brush calligraphy and brush painting.

 Practicing calligraphy often fills me with a sense of serenity. I can’t say I am a master but I am confident that my calligraphy skill is sound and solid. My calligraphy has been exhibited at the Odlin Gallery of the Hutt Art Centre and I have sold a few pieces. 

 Five years ago I introduced this practice to my friend Leah, a qualified counsellor. We found it was a useful practice on several levels, but first and foremost as a tool for reducing stress. This is why we call it ‘calligratherapy’.

It is a new field of therapy which is already being used in places like the UK as an alternative to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; another one of the activities that are available to you to help with stress.

Alistair Hudson

Alistair has over 25 years' experience creating jewellery.  Inspired by his natural environment and Pacific forms, his designs are hand-made mostly from silver, gold, fired enamels, unusual gems and diamonds. Not one to be pigeon-holed, Alistair enjoys making one-off designs.

His training included a rare apprenticeship in the badge and metal making branch of a manufacturing jeweller, specialising in vitreous enamelling.  As well as working for several traditional jewellers, he has also studied graphic design, bronze casting and sculpture.

He lives in Wellington with his family and other interests include music, art, cycling, swimming and skiing.

His love of learning new things, particularly at the CEC, led to him offering his skills as a jewellery tutor - something he greatly enjoys.

Alistair can be contacted via his Facebook page, where you can see samples of his work or visit his website.

Amal Samaha

Amal Samaha studied fine arts at the University of Western Australia, and later politics and history at Victoria University of Wellington. They live in Karori with their partner and a one-eyed cat.

 Amal was an exhibiting artist in small galleries in Australia and New Zealand between 2014 and 2018, working in an unpremeditated style of oil painting, as well as pen-an-ink illustration. They were the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art’s “Young Innovator Online” for 2014-15.

Angela Robertson

Angela is an experienced people development manager, coach, facilitator, speaker and consultant. She has worked in complex and geographically dispersed organisations across all sectors; Government, Higher Education, the private and not-for-profit sectors, and in the community, and recently re-established her own consultancy business. 

Her portfolios have included strategic organisational development initiatives, change leadership, leadership development, team development, employee engagement, career development and talent management and facilitated staff conferences and forums.

Angela inspires and supports individuals and organisations to identify, develop and capitalise on their greatest talents, to maximise individual and collective potential to achieve their goals and aspirations.  She takes a strengths-based approach to her work and, in partnership with clients, explores and applies practical solutions to develop and retain talent, initiating and embedding frameworks to achieve these outcomes. She regularly coaches and mentors’ individuals and teams to make conscious choices to achieve their aspirations and enrich the quality of their lives, work and relationships.

Angela is tertiary qualified (PhD, Masters in Education Hons, Bachelor of Education, Diploma in Tertiary Teaching) and accredited both as Strengthsfinder Coach, and Team Management Profile Facilitator.

Together, Angela and Sandi Shillington have put together a workshop to enable people choosing not to retire, but to rejuvenate. 

Anne de Geus

Hi there, my name is Anne and, initially, started out my career in the fashion industry. This I pursued for 10 years in Christchurch in the employment of fashion designer: Rosaria Hall (considered the Karen Walker of the ’80s). I then entered the theatre industry and was employed in the wardrobe at Downstage Theatre for four years. After that I studied at the Academy of Art and in Amsterdam and attained a Teaching Degree in Art, majoring in Textiles.

On return to New Zealand I was contracted to teach at Massey University in the fashion department and also the Technical department of the New Zealand Drama School/ Toi Whakaari. Alongside teaching at these institutes, I completed a Masters in Design on costume designers and design principles in New Zealand. Since then I took over a haberdashery shop in Island Bay from which I operated a dressmaking business for 7 years. The dressmaking I continue to pursue along with teaching and costuming for various theatre companies.

I have various interests including: distance walking, tennis, yoga, cycling and am taking up the ukulele.

Anne Haddon

Anne is a computer tutor with over 30 years’ experience and has taught both in the Corporate Market and at different training organisations. 

She holds a Teacher’s Diploma from Massey and has enjoyed imparting her computer knowledge as she has  practical skills in office work and teaching. Anne's other interests are dancing, playing a musical instrument and biking. 

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