Royal New Zealand Ballet’s contemporary series a bold a move

It was a bold move by the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) to open its 2019 season with a programme of four new works by New Zealand resident choreographers, although it only receives six performances spread between Wellington and Christchurch.

The opening work, Moss Patterson’s Hine, is a tribute to the community of Tokaanu that nurtured him and to his ancestral house Pu¯ haorangi.

Drawing on a full complement of dancers, Patterson has created an episodic work that opens with a haka performed by the men of the company with all the passion and conviction one expects from our national ballet company.

The work is, by turns, vigorous and reflective, with a concern for pattern making in the choreography that, from my seat near the front of the stalls, was more evident in its intention than through being fully visible.

As the title of Patterson’s work indicates, it also celebrates the strength of women, a theme that runs through the programme as a whole.

James O’Hara’s The Sky is not so different from us, perhaps, in contrast, is performed by just six dancers. It has a laid back, almost somnolent quality redolent of the 1970s.

Rising and falling scrims punctuated the work but did little to add interest. Better suited to one of our contemporary dance companies, its performance by the RNZB seems hard to justify.

The joyous energy and inventive steps of Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath our Feet, was thus doubly welcome.

Performed to a Bach violin concerto, electronically modified by fellow dancer Massimo Margaria, the work allows the company’s dancers to show off their well-honed skills and individual strengths. Kelly’s is a talent to be nurtured.

The programme concludes with Artemis Rising by Sarah Foster-Sproull, a valedictory

Royal NZ Ballet Choreographic Series; Friday, March 8; Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch.

work for one of the company’s best-loved dancers, Abigail Boyle, who retires at the end of this series of performances.

As the Greek goddess of the hunt, Boyle was supported by a chorus of blackclad dancers, but it was her work and she inhabited the role to the full. At the end a grateful audience rose to its feet in tribute.

Boyle has too many skills as a performer to be allowed to completely disappear from the stage and we must hope that the company will continue to call on her many talents in the future.

A final word on the lighting; to be fully enjoyed dance needs to be clearly seen and the unrelenting darkness of so much of this programme does little to serve this end.