Ballet series offers f itting farewell
Royal New Zealand Ballet Choreographic Series State Opera House, March 1st Reviewed by Lyne Pringle
The Royal New Zealand Ballet Choreographic Series seeks to nurture choreographers who have relevance to New Zealand audiences and communities.
Reinforcing her commitment to local artists, artistic director Patricia Barker, has invited back Moss Patterson – Tikanga Ma¯ ori advisor for the season of The Piano – and Sarah Foster-Sproull to create works for this season.
Long-time company member and choreographic resident for 2019 Shaun James Kelly and newcomer James O’Hara complete the line-up.
Patterson endeavours to portray the mauri and tohu of his ancestral house, Puha¯ orangi, through movement. Taking its title from the goddess, Hine also explores the many iterations of this deity, danced with grace and focus by Nadia Yanowsky.
Multiple themes and a mash of movement styles, images and sounds create an out-of-focus experience. The wairua of the company is unquestionable as it embarks on a cultural journey with this choreographer.
Ballet and tikanga, however, are diametrically opposed. We are left questioning whether they can be bedfellows.
James Ohara’s work, The Sky Is Not So Different From Us, Perhaps . . ., begins too slowly but eventually yields a rich field of movement, where dancers flit in soft, sensuous arcs. They evoke the jobble of waves and dandelion fluff floating on puffs of air. Gauzes are used cleverly to open and close the space, even at one point trapping a dancer beneath the weight of nothing.
Violinist Anita Clark, playing live, creates a clever score of captured musical loops. This emulates the movement of a gorgeously embodied cast. The work is pensive but ultimately tender and joyously uplifting.
The standout of the evening is The Ground Beneath Our Feet by Shaun James Kelly. It is a wellcrafted and playful work. The dancers, who are uniformly superb, obviously relish the challenges thrown at them as they push the classical technique to a dynamic edge.
The costumes are bright and enhance the sense of dancers being beams of light sliding in and out of vision.
Artemis Rising completes the programme with an homage to retiring dancer Abigail Boyle. The work reinforces her status as a goddess of the stage. In an exquisite azure dress, she is riveting as we drink in the last images of her in this realm.
Choreographer Sarah FosterSproull deploys a chorus of new company members to augment her movement by carrying her aloft and enhancing her gestures with multiple hand sculptures.
It is an evening where people will find favorite works – something for everyone.