Recently the Royal New Zealand Ballet celebrated its sixtieth jubilee with a glorious production of Russell Kerr’s Swan Lake, and gatherings of present and past company members and friends.  The occasion was also marked by the launch of The Royal New Zealand Ballet at 60, edited by Anne Rowse and Jennifer Shennan, and published by Victoria University Press.  This book includes contributions from a range of artistic directors, dancers, and others, and is beautifully illustrated with over three hundred photographs. 

As noted on Radio New Zealand National (Upbeat, 12 July 2013) the book was originally intended to be a biography of Poul Gnatt, written by Jennifer Shennan with a grant from Friends of the Turnbull Library.  A man of enormous charisma and energy, Gnatt was the pioneering spirit behind the Company’s formation in the fifties, and gained the assistance of New Zealand dancers Rowena Jackson, Sara Neil, and Alexander Grant, all of whom had been principals with London’s Royal Ballet.  Without him, the Company would not be what it is today. 

But therein lies a problem for, rather than a “rich history”, as the inside cover claims, The Royal New Zealand Ballet at 60 is a pastiche which unevenly addresses certain eras.  The section devoted to Poul Gnatt’s ten years as Director, for example, is proportionately far longer than the section devoted to Russell Kerr’s six years as Director whilst the book’s many anecdotes recall the Gnatt years far more often than the Kerr years. 

Indeed, barely a single anecdote from dancers of 1965 to 1968 has been included, and this when so many of them went on to become principals, ballet masters, or directors in reputable international companies such as the Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, the Australian Ballet, the Queensland Ballet, Malmo Stadsteatern (Sweden), and English National Ballet.  Furthermore, several poems in the book have little to do with the Company.  (Philip Simpson’s ‘Dancing Leaves’ is actually about a cabbage tree.)  Multiple photographs of dancers such as Jon Trimmer and Kerry-Anne Gilberd rightly acknowledge their significant roles, but at the expense of detail on the years 1965 to 1968. 

It rests mainly with theatre designer Raymond Boyce to record, albeit briefly, what must surely have been a peak in the Company’s history: the 1965 season of Swan Lake and Giselle when the leads were performed by top international dancers Svetlana Beriosova, principal with the Royal Ballet; Karl Musil, principal with the Vienna State Opera; and Marilyn Burr and Jean-Paul Comelin, principals with the Festival Ballet.  Sole credit must go to Russell Kerr for organising this season, and for transforming the New Zealand Ballet (as it was then called) into a fully professional company.  A quieter personality than Gnatt, Kerr was innately musical, a perfectionist who drove the dancers to achieve the highest standards, and a gifted choreographer and teacher with an acute eye for detail.  

Even more neglected are the South African dancer Desmond Kelly and his wife, New Zealander Denise le Comte, previously principals with the Festival Ballet.  The book’s one brief allusion to them fails to acknowledge their talent.  Indeed, following his stint with the New Zealand Ballet in 1967/8, Kelly became a principal with the Royal Ballet, partnering Margot Fonteyn and Natalia Makarova.  How sad that he fares so poorly in the memories of the book’s editors and writers.

No one history book can cover everything.  However, the paucity of detail on the years of 1965-8is unfortunate.  As a tribute to Poul Gnatt this book works well, but a comprehensive and considered history of the Royal New Zealand Ballet has yet to be written.

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