Reviews - TOWER Tutus on Tour
Tutu kachoo
Reviewed by Francesca Horsley, NZ Listener
From haughty to hot, to coolly restrained, to sharp and edgy, this year’s Tutus on Tour season features sophisticated contemporary ballet that stretches the dancers’ techniques.
A unique Kiwi institution, the biennial 47-centre tour by the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) is intrepid enough in itself; the company is divided into troupes of 16 dancers for each island, and each season yields a bounty of dramas and challenging performance spaces.
Sophisticated and elegant, Christopher Hampson’s Saltarello, last presented in 2004, never fails to inspire. It is drawn from Decameron, the 14th century writings of Boccaccio. Ten young nobles, clad in sexy black and silver, escape plague-ridden Florence and, secreted away from the scrutiny of their elders, entertain themselves with amorous encounters barely contained by the mores of the age.
Performed to intoxicating medieval music, the tempo is fast paced, with pauses for intrigue. The choreography juxtaposes classical and contemporary techniques – the women’s long legs flash, the men’s daring turns cut the space.
Twenty-something ex-RNZB dancer Andrew Simmons reveals a growing choreographic stature with his duet Through to You. Danced, in Wellington, with clarity by Lucy Balfour and Paul Mathews, the piece has a soft and delicate mood, reflecting the music – Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror). Tracy Grant Lord’s design sets the dancers in metallic green as glistening forest fronds. Each dancer follows their own intricate pathway, building to intense unity.
The Holberg Suite, choreographed by company ballet master Greg Horsman, is a lovely refined elucidation of classical technique. The cool yet poetic choreography and powder-blue costumes match composer Grieg’s Nordic temperament.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Australian Garry Stewart’s Currently Under Investigation is funky and upbeat, in bare feet and white street clothes, dancers abandon their weightlessness for a grounded, earthy physicality, melding hip-hop, gymnastic and breakdance moves to classical technique.
The final piece, Koo Koo Ka Choo, a collaboration between RNZB dancers Catherine Eddy and Brendan Bradshaw, is set to selection of Lennon and McCartney love songs. A crowd-pleaser, each song depicting flirtation, jaded or disappointed love, it nevertheless lacks the structure and dynamic challenges of the other works.
Ballet company offers something old, something new
Over the next couple of months it will tour 48 centres as farflung as Twizel and Wairoa with a programme of five dances, one of which has been in the repertoire for a few years and some having a first outing.
This programme doesn't push the boundaries of dance too much but does provide an evening of effervescent and entertaining ballet.
It gives audiences the opportunity to see newly commissioned work and the skilled dancers of the company.
The high point of the programme is the short duo piece Through to You choreographed by former Royal NZ Ballet dancer Andrew Simmons.
It was an absolute gem of a work, sparkling in all dimensions. It was intelligent in conception and subtle in its resolution.
The work focuses on the basics of dance; simplicity of expression, technical ability and an emphasis on the form and line of dance.
Paul Mathews and Lucy Balfour respond to each other's movements and gestures as though in intimate conversation. Gracefulness alternates with tautness, sharp spiky movements alternate with soft curving ones. The couple move in and out of the lit areas of the stage, sometimes dancing in silhouette, emphasising transition and movement.
The major work is the Decameron-inspired Saltarello, set to medieval music. The dancers initially follow the ritualistic patterns of formal courtly dance but interspersed with other elements such as gypsy, Celtic and tango. The veneer of elegance is stripped away and an earthy primal dance form emerges.
Several of the sequences were preceded by passages of dance with no music. Here the dance appeared to evolve the form of the dancers themselves, unchoreographed and unrehearsed, simple physical means of relating. The sharp darting primal movement contrasted with the refined elegant dances, the bravura displays of the male dancers merging with the ornamented steps and gestures of the female
The strong directional lighting created visual drama as the dancers, their silhouettes and shadows intertwined.
The work has an underlying sensuality, conveying a sense of the dance and its movements evolving rom close physical and emotional connections. Both male and female dancers displayed an energetic physicality, seen in the naked torsos of the men and the shimmering costumes and flesh of the women.
The Holberg Suite, danced to the music of Edward Grieg, is a combination of the stylishly classical and the abstract contemporary, with a lot of subtle visual textures. The dancers responded to the Baroque style music with some enlightened dancing.
The lively male pas de trois showed off the dancers' strength and stamina but at times it seemed they were only concerned with flashy technical display rather than interpreting the emotional mood of the music.
At other time duos responded to the pathos of the music, giving expression to the emotional conditions. Unfortunately, the subtlety and expressiveness of the dancing was overwhelmed by the excessive loudness of the music.
The final two works on the programme, which got a great audience response, were based on popular music and dance.
Currently Under Investigation combines hip hop, break dancing, krump and free style with 10 dancers gyrating around the stage in a high energy performance. It was a fresh humorous work full of dynamic pulsating moves in which action and reaction dominates.
Koo Koo Ka Choo choreographed by Catherine Eddy and Brendan Bradshaw is danced to eight John Lennon and Paul McCartney love songs in a mixture of classical dance and rock and roll.
Rather than merely illustrate the words, each of the dances explores a dimension of love, the romance, flirting, jealousy, passion, disappointment and elation.
There is I've Just seen a Face in which two lads respond to their friends' elated condition with an ebullience mixed with camaraderie and high jinx. Then there is the bleaker, darker, psychologically dense Come Together, which conveys a sense of violence and sexual angst.
It's an energetic feel-good work, which shows the enduring qualities of the Beatles songs and their perceptive lyrics and clever tunes. It also shows the ability of the ballet company to keep producing relevant and entertaining new works.
Love, Romance, Sensuality
REVIEWED BY: Jenny Stevenson, Theatreview
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.
An exquisite tour de force
There are 48 performance venues on this tour and, in the company’s earliest tours, there were 125. No other ballet company in the world can top these statistics. We are a lucky bunch, and the folks from Akaroa to Waikpukurau know it.
First up, Christopher Hampson’s Saltarello – taut and sultry, sophisticated dancing to medieval music of great energy. Hampson, who created Cinderella and Romeo & Juliet for the Royal NZ Ballet, is a highly accomplished choreographer who can build several layers of meaning into movement. Maree White in a duo with Jaered Glavin was heart-stoppingly exquisite. A great opening number.
Greg Horsman’s Holberg Suite is quieter in style and theme of transferring movement sourced from dancers daily class into performance proportions, with adagio/allegro sections well judged.
In Through to You, choreographer Andrew Simmons lets the mysterious pull of Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel, and poetic lighting by Nigel Percy, take two powerful dancers, Lucy Balfour and Paul Mathews, on a journey rich in emotion.
Garry Stewart’s lively work, Currently Under Investigation, has a flavour of street dance with multi-moves cleverly linked, and backed by flashed messages of advice to sharpen up. Fast film clips of set changes and daily class, to Happy Feet, are screened between items, and, whilst entertaining, are also intriguingly full of interest.
Koo Koo Ka Choo, a romp to eight Lennon and McCartney songs, locally re-recorded with vocals by Eva Prowse, is co-choreographed by company dancers Catherine Eddy and Brendan Bradshaw. Humorous touches bring a lightness of spirit to this work, with Qi Huan making particular impression, as he did through the whole evening. A great closing number.
The company’s wardrobe, stage crews and management are dancing a fantastic ballet of their own out the back to keep two parallel ensembles, one for each island, on the road.
The other island cast performs here on Saturday night, then it’s lights up for Wainuiomata and Twizel.
Tutus on Tour
REVIEWED BY: Bernadette Rae, NZ Herald
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.
The first curtain goes up on Christopher Hampson's Saltarello, costumed in slinky black and bling: a fast, fabulous and flirty work that displays what the company does best – a contemporary take on classical technique. Papakura was Renee von Stein's night to shine, though some insecure landings from several other dancers initially suggested a slippery floor?
The Holberg Suite is a lyrical and totally classical piece from ballet master Greg Horsman, an exercise in elegance, precision and musicality, with lovely modern tutus in pale blue for the girls and grey tights for the boys. Michael Braun and Katie Hurst-Saxton made for a truly magical moment in the central, demanding duet.
Light on feet – heavy on compliments
REVIEWED BY: Gail Tresidder, Nelson Mail
There wasn’t an elephant within miles of the Trafalgar Centre last night. Fourteen dancers of the Royal New Zealand Ballet gave a bravura fairy light on the feet performance, impressive in its exuberance and vitality.
The well-balanced programme, mixing classical and contemporary styles, began with Christopher Hampson’s Saltarello, the men stripped to bare essentials, the women elegant in black and silver. This was controlled and muscular dancing to haunting music, incorporating a sinuous and joyful pas de deux and making lovely lines against the lilac-lit backdrop.
Set to Grieg’s music with choreography by Australian Greg Horsman, Holberg Suite is an evocative piece of classical dance for an ensemble of eight, the women in pale blue tutus, dancing on points, and the men in traditional tunics.
We had purity of shape from all the dancers and a standout performance from Abigail Boyle and Qi Huan. Through To You is a duet danced to Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel (mirror in the mirror), with choreography by Andrew Simmons. Performed beautifully by Paul Matthews and Lucy Balfour, they deserved the first bravos of the night. From nearly black through green, yellow and gold and back to black again, the lighting reflected the mood, the emotion, the passion generated between them.
With strange costumes and a fast and frantic pace, Currently Under Investigation gave a feeling of menace and impending catastrophe. The dancers produced movements in total contrast to the expected, and the back projection was amazing.
Koo Koo Ka Choo was a wonderful end to the programme. New Zealander Eva Prowse proves, yet again, that others can sing the Beatles. Her delivery of eight iconic songs, including Help!, Oh Darling and I Want To Hold Your Hand, provided an enjoyable counterpoint to the witty, interpretative choreography of RNZB dancers Catherine Eddy and Brendan Bradshaw. Three cheers for the sassy shimmy in Honey Pie and the finale All You Need Is Love, complete with rainbow backdrop.
Two years ago, in the Nelson College hall, we couldn’t see the dancers’ feet. Last night, 500 people could see perfectly; not only the dancers’ feet but every little nuance of stage business. There has been considerable ‘‘You can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse’’ grumbling about the money spent to upgrade the Trafalgar Centre – a sentiment I agreed with. I was wrong. The new stage worked well, the sound was crisp and clear, and the portable raked seating made an adequate division between the performance venue and the space behind. In only four weeks, the Royal New Zealand Ballet will give 19 performances in 16 South Island cities and towns. Their tour began here last night, with a further sold-out performance tonight.
