There are three notable usages of the word "provincial" that spring to mind as I start this review: when rugby players get to slip into the acclaimed status of All Black; when the government tries to hoodwink the country into thinking that there is debate about Auckland’s need for better transport; when ballet companies take a mish mash version of a programme to smaller towns.

There is a strange inverted confliction in that word. It is as though the word "provincial" allows for less. Or perhaps potentially more?

New Zealand’s only ballet company is surely a mix of dancers from around the world; this is evident in the disparity of their technical styles. Their unity I imagine is largely thanks to the expert tutelage in studio of Turid Redveim, their Ballet Mistress. They are great dancers and assured, obviously having fun with the largely inventive dance vocabularies at hand.
What is lacking in this programme is cohesion of concept. And there’s the rub. I am not convinced the provinces handle this mode of presentation differently to city slickers. A sort of perplexed enjoyment seeps through the audience applause; thank goodness we have nearly stopped clapping at every double pirouette! It is difficult to merge the first impression of a very slick company with a myopic sense of artistic vision in what is essentially a variety programme.

There is little need for education about this art form. It has its global following. More importantly ballet dancers and choreographers need to drive forward into the world of generous communication, to treat us with possibilities and dreams.

I think Gary Harris, the Artistic Director, does have good intentions; the excellence in technical display assures us of that. But there are few moments in Dunedin’s turn for Tutus on Tour where the ballet world of make believe becomes riveting and breathtaking. One such moment belongs to some exquisite lighting in the duet ‘Through to You’, to slightly sped up music by Arvo Part and the dancing of Paul Mathews and Lucy Balfour. She is superb throughout and Mathews’ interpretive strength arouses moments of a visceral response.

Also I find it difficult to glance away, this night, from the clarity and gamine poise of Abigail Boyle and Lucy Balfour, the strong lines of Adriana Harper and the merry versatility of Harry Skinner. Their exuberant expertise spills back into the choreographic form and out off the shonky stage. It is in these few expressive instances that the potential for this national company to forge a relationship with greatness sits.

Choreographically, the other work of note is Garry Stewart’s ‘Currently Under Investigation’, where dancers moved across the Dunedin Town Hall fake stage in dangerously close formations with revelrous abandon and delight in freed movements. As my small birthday-treated nephew put it: that was cool!!

I still wish that this company would associate with more contemporary choreographers to learn about presenting this art form in the new age. Dancers do need replenishment, dancing the classics and even maintaining classicism in narrative and theme is not enough. More glimpses into their special artistries and quirks would have opened up a whole new vista of performance splendour and possibly heaved this company out of the provincial framework and up there into Sylvie Guillem‘s light.

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On March 10 they danced in Hamilton, March 11 in Manukau, March 14 in Titirangi and on Sunday night it was Papakura. By the end of the month they will have visited Dargaville, Kerikeri, Whangarei for two nights, Wellsford, Thames, Putaruru, Taupo, Rotorua and Tauranga. In the first week of April they will do Gisborne, Hastings and Palmerston North.

With a delicious and extremely demanding programme of five substantial works, it is a big ask. Everyone is on stage in almost everything. Two snippets of a speeded up film entitled A Day in the Life of the RNZB are needed, as well as the two regular intervals, to make it all possible. [More]

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Gary Harris, the Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, has thumbed his nose at the recession blues and created a sparkling, joyful programme of upbeat works on the theme of romance, for the Company’s annual tour of the hinterland. 

In so doing, he has also opened up the field for four new choreographers to create works in the classical idiom – at a time when there is a dearth of ballet choreographers working in New Zealand.  As a result the programme is a diverse mix of styles – all of them showing off the Company dancers as a tight ensemble, who are strong, athletic and above all versatile. 

The audience favourite was clearly the exuberant Koo Koo Ka Choo, choreographed by Company members Catherine Eddy and Brendan Bradshaw to a medley of Beatles songs, arranged by Jeremy Cullen and beautifully sung by Eva Prowse.  The choreographers avoided the trap of being too cute and nostalgic – opting instead to reflect the timeless lyrics in a contemporary manner, only occasionally referencing 60s and 70s dance styles.

Romping through the various states of love with all its attendant flirtations, heartaches, fickleness and distractions – the dancers clearly had a ball and so did the audience revelling in the age-old panacea of ‘All You Need is Love’.

Through to You, a duet choreographed by former New Zealand Ballet choreographer Andrew Simmons to Arvo Part’s ‘Spiegel Im Spiegel’, is a gem of choreographic design.  It has a shimmering intensity due in no small part to the exquisite dancing of Lucy Balfour and Paul Mathews.  The fluid lighting alternately highlights or partially conceals the dancers, giving an ethereal quality but their connection as partners is fully maintained throughout.  They manage to convey, in only a short amount of time, the passion of ‘un grand amour’.

Still on the romantic theme, Ballet Master Greg Horsman has created a formal classical ballet to Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite.  Although the dancers were still settling into the style on opening night, the work is a strong creation that will undoubtedly become a mainstay of the Company in years to come.

Comprising eight dancers who work as partners – the women wearing tutus and the men, tunics – the work explores the complexities of Grieg’s music in a manner that uncovers hidden nuances.  The patterning includes carefully rendered partnering and group formations in the traditional manner with some beautifully executed pas-de-deux moves particularly in the dancing of Qi Huan and Abigail Boyle.

The inimitable Christopher Hampson’s take on the sensual side of romance is the theme of Salterello, which has become something of a trademark Company ballet over the years.  What’s not to like?  Long-legged be-jewelled women in skimpy flirt-skirts and bare-chested men in tight shorts or kilts dance up a storm in the woods – freed from society’s normal constraints, as depicted in Boccacccio’s Decameron.   The male dancers in particular get a chance to show off some prodigious leaps and the moments of dancing in silence are extremely potent.

Finally, street-wise romance is depicted in Currently Under Investigation, by Australian Dance Theatre’s flamboyant choreographer, Garry Stewart.  First performed in New Zealand by dancers from the New Zealand School of Dance, the work has attitude aplenty and is danced to a throbbing techno composition by Richard Hawtin.  The dancers throw themselves into this style with enthusiasm – even given the constraints of a weighted vocabulary of movement that is the antithesis of classical ballet.

The Company has divided in two to tour 47 New Zealand centres. The performance on Thursday night was given by the South Island Company. The same repertoire will be performed by the North Island Company on Saturday night.

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