Fitting farewell for principal ballet dancer
The country’s national ballet explores new territory and addresses old controversies in its lastest production, opening next month. Carly Thomas reports.
It is the nature of dance to be in perpetual forward motion and so a new choreographic series from the Royal New Zealand Ballet is another step in the art form’s progression. The navigators for the new works are Sarah Foster-Sproull, Moss Patterson,
James O’Hara, and Shaun James Kelly, and in their toolbox are the dancers from the full expanse of the company, as well as students from the New Zealand School of Dance.
It is new, it is creation and with it comes a buzz in rehearsals of new territory being mapped out and traversed. For principal dancer Abigail Boyle, a work created for her by Foster-Sproull carries the complex weight of joy and sorrow as it is Boyle’s swansong with the company.
Set to retire after the Choreographic Series, the work will be based on Boyle’s work as a dancer – her life, fears, passions and all the emotions inbetween – in which she transforms into the Greek deity Artemis, a formidable goddess of the hunt, wild animals and fertility.
The process started with a chat about Boyle’s 13-year career with the company.
‘‘There are so many layers to my career and so many reasonings for everything. It’s not just pretty, there is a theory behind everything I dance that makes it so much more worthwhile. There are aspects in this work of the feelings I have had around things and the thought pattern in the studio, but in life as well.’’
Foster-Sproull is a rockstar in the dance world, bringing works to the stage that have a strong feminine presence and power. She also draws on the inner depths of the dancer. Working with Foster-Sproull means opening up, in movement, as well as in self.
‘‘The interpretation and the physicalisation of the ideas always have a dynamic relationship with the performer, and with this one we are exploring the qualities of Artemis with a sense of passing over and stepping away. Creating something of incredible strength, detail and dexterity, which sits thematically with this position of Abbie stepping away from the company and moving into the next phase of her career.’’
The series also faces up to some of the controversy that occurred during its production of The Piano last year. Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, the show’s cultural adviser, was upset by what he said was misappropriation of the Ma¯ ori culture by the Czech director Jiri Bubenicek, and his stage designer and twin brother Otto.
He sees this new piece as a positive step to repairing some of the damage.
‘‘It was a really tough process with The Piano, mostly because I had to explain some pretty basic concepts to two people who really weren’t open to hearing. I was really feeling that experience and Patricia [Barker, RNZB’s artistic director] really wanted me to have a renewed feeling towards this space.’’
And so he is filling it with his own brand of mahi, bringing a clear movement style that inhabits a place of tikanga Ma¯ ori. But in these studios, instead of working alongside his wellversed Atamira Dance Company, he is ‘‘cross pollinating’’ with the mixed cultures of the RNZB.
‘‘These people are technicians, so I’ll give them a really complex move and they get it straight away. The team here, there’s a sense of reticence to
‘‘It’s not just pretty, there is a theory behind everything I dance that makes it so much more worthwhile.’’ Abigail Boyle, above
change and morph things, so it’s been interesting for me to work in this way, more as a sculptor. I do something and the next day it’s still there and I’m like, ‘wow’. They are incredible to work with in that sense.’’
Ma¯ ori mythology will be communicated via a soundtrack ranging from traditional taonga puoro to the wave crash sounds of Te Reo heavy metal band Alien Weaponry. Patterson says it is well and truly time for ballet to tell these stories and for him it is about creating ideas with a cultural narrative.
‘‘We are taking simple ideas, like koru and symbols and we are making them into topographical and choreographic movement forms.’’ And the conversation will start afresh, but this time it will be Patterson’s quietly spoken voice that will be heard.
Meanwhile, Shaun James Kelly is also having his time front of centre. He is an RNZB dancer known for his lyrical and joyful style but, for this performance, audiences will see him step behind the scenes for his first work as the RNZB’s Choreographer in Residence.
Kelly adores classical form and structure and his new piece adheres to traditional lines, but also speaks of his own spark. Kelly is pushing the dancers, who he is usually shoulder to shoulder with, with a driving Bach score.
And with a style that hovers somewhere above contemporary and classical, James O’Hara completes the choreographic mixed-bill.
The New Zealand School of Dance contemporary dance tutor has worked with renowned companies around the world as a dancer and as a choreographer and is joining forces with composer Motte (Anita Clark). Live on stage, she will deliver her experimental score, co-existing with the dancers for a suspended moment of art and movement.
As a result, the great wheels of dance will move ahead in an ever-increasing forward motion of constant reinvention.
The RNZB’s Choreographic Series will premiere at Wellington’s Opera House on March 1, before making its South Island debut at Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal on March 8.