From Here to There Reviews

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DANCERS’ FULL POTENTIAL BROUGHT TO THE FORE

Reviewed by Alexandra Kolb, Regent Theatre, Dunedin 25 Feb 2010 Theatreview

Mixed bills are always good for surprises. In the last few years, the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s bills were of respectable quality but rarely quite reached the zenith of their excellent full-length Sylphide and Peter Pan. Dunedin was the testing ground of the new programme From Here to There and the starting point of the company’s tour to the other centres on the South and North Islands. It wasn’t quite clear to me precisely what ‘journey’ the title of the triple bill alluded to, but I can assert that the pieces were fine, in one, and brilliant, in the other two cases.

The English-based Christopher Hampson’s Silhouette, set to music by Francis Poulenc, opened the evening. Black, white and grey costumes created strong constrasting images in accordance with the theme. The classical tutus set the tone for the piece which had a neo-classical feel spiced up with some contemporary elements and the occasional glimpse of popular dance. A hip swing recurred as a mini-leitmotif, reminiscent of the famous rumba step in Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free – although it seemed a little déplacé without the latter’s sailors and erotic subtext.

The choreography was pleasant but overall fairly conventional, and the piece didn’t quite manage to gel into a coherent whole. It never shook off a certain air of ‘constructedness’, and the bravura solos towards the end seemed too much ends-in-themselves. However, some nice partner and group work partially compensated for the weaker moments.

The other two pieces sustained tension extremely well and perfectly showcased the RNZB dancers’ technical and expressive skills.

To striking music by Philip Glass, A Song in the Dark was subtle, of strongly lyrical and yet energetic quality. Christchurch-born choreographer Andrew Simmons presented a hauntingly beautiful, often intense work characterised by constant motion and fluid movements, climaxing in a notable finish and lots of applause from the audience.

The ensemble captured the flow of the work most adeptly, and particular credit must be given to Katie Hurst-Saxton and Michael Braun, and Antonia Hewitt and Brendan Bradshaw who displayed superior artistic ability in the solo/duet parts. It will be intriguing to see what the talented young Simmons, who is currently resident in Germany, still has in store for New Zealand and international audiences.

The last piece by David Dawson, who is London-born but like Simmons working in Germany, was an encore performance. The title of the piece – A Million Kisses to my Skin – might evoke associations of a sensual kind, but far from it. Composition, set and music all have formal, abstract qualities which superbly complement each other to meld into a unified whole, leaving strong and lasting impressions.

This was a piece of modern art, perhaps a Mondrian painting considering the colour scheme of the flowing costumes and the geometrical patterns which dominated the set, translated into dance. The music by Bach added to the work’s somewhat intellectual yet highly forceful and vibrant flair. Undoubtedly a very mature piece, this is full of technical demands and distinguished by its excellent compositional qualities.

On a mild note of criticism, the ten-dollar programmes could have been improved by offering more historical or other background notes on the pieces or the company, alongside the array of adverts. But overall, this performance evening can be recommended almost unreservedly, as bringing the RNZB dancers’ full potential to the fore.
 

A choreographic cocktail of beauty, elegance and dynamism.

It was double excitement for the Dunedin audience to witness the beginning of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2010 season in a performance which included two world premieres: Christopher Hampson’s Silhouette and Andrew Simmon’s A Song in the Dark. Together with a familiar company piece, A Million Kisses to My Skin first peformed in 2005, the triple bill “From Here to There” featured a blend of choreographies, diverse in dance style, content, costume and design.

Silhouette featured the whole company, 32 dancers inky black tutus slashed with white. Hampson’s choreography comprises a formalist approach to the classical vocabulary that keeps the lines pure and austere, yet they are often interrupted by quirky wiggles of a torso. The abstract symmetry of the dancing is inspired by the mood and rhythm of Poulenc’s Concert Champetre, as Hampson aims to get the audience to “see the music”, its beauty and humanity. It is complemented by the sharp geometrical lighting and clever use of screens to transition from scene to scene. Overall, the piece was clean, sharp and chic, although slightly conventional at times. The male steps were dynamic and displayed virtuosity, while the women were elegant and often restricted, reminiscent at times of Degas’ statue, the Little Dancer.

Simmons is a former RNZB dancer, and A Song in the Dark is his third work for the company. The choreography suited the dancers perfectly and displayed their interpretative qualities. It captivated the audience with its theme of love, missed opportunities and beauty, which brilliantly mirrored the music by Phillip Glass. The eight males and eight females wore rich green and black costumes designed by the former RNZB dancer Kate Venables to show their grace and athleticism.

In contrast, David Dawson’s A Million Kisses to My Skin, featured bright costumes, energetic duets, and exciting solos.
In the past few years, the company has grown stronger both technically and artistically. In this performance, the dancers proved they could carry out a very challenging and versatile programme.

MOVES AFOOT

Chris Moore for the Christchurch Press 05 March 2010

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is presenting its first 2010 production in Christchurch this week - a triple bill featuring two new works. CHRIS MOORE talks to the two men who designed the steps.

While it's the dancers who take centre stage, it is the choreographer who gives dance its unique physical presence, fusing the human physicality with music to articulate his or her imagination and creativity.

Last week in Dunedin, a New Zealander and an Englishman - one with an established name in international dance, the other launching his choreographic career - saw the long, demanding months of creation and rehearsal made reality.

The Royal New Zealand Ballet's 2010 season has begun with a triple bill. From Here To There features A Song In The Dark, choreographed by former RNZB dancer and Cantabrian Andrew Simmons; Silhouette, created by Christopher Hampson; and a restaging of David Dawson's A Million Kisses To My Skin.

According to the RNZB's artistic director, Gary Harris, presenting a trio of danceworks provides an opportunity to challenge audiences and give new talent a chance to blossom. "From Here to There features three works that are all very different - not just in the sense that they come from different choreographers but they also offer a diversity of dance styles, design and music," Harris says.

For 24-year-old Simmons - born and trained in Christchurch, married to dancer Chantelle Kerr and now establishing a career as a freelance choreographer based in Dresden, Germany - the opportunity to choreograph a work to the music of contemporary American composer Philip Glass presented a personally challenging and "daunting" opportunity.

"I stumbled across the pieces after Gary Harris invited me to choreograph a work. I always start with the music. It takes me with it," Simmons says.

For this ballet, he chose three separate works, the Tirol Concerto for piano and orchestra, Tissue No 1 and a section of the score for The Poet Acts.

"Glass's music is minimalistic. It could have been a cliche to use it but these are works which are unusual, especially the movement from the piano concerto. I wanted music which had energy and was dynamic without being heavy. Three ideas emerged through the choreography - love, missed opportunities and beauty in the ordinary. Interesting, inspiring themes which can be absorbed in individual ways."

Immersing himself in the music, Simmons began to carefully structure his new work. The most exciting part of the project came on the first day of rehearsals with the RNZB dancers.

"That's the day when you give the dancers the first steps - a few bits to learn before the vocabulary develops from there. It's then that the project becomes a team effort and the choreographer begins to feed off the dancers' ideas."

For Simmons' fellow choreographer, Christopher Hampson, 36, the invitation to choreograph a new work has reinforced a decade-long link with New Zealand's national ballet company. He had already created several new pieces for the RNZB - in Silhouette, he had a single goal in mind. To allow the audience to "see" the music on stage through a ballet with a contemporary edge.

The choice of music was comparatively straightforward. Hampson had loved the work of Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), whose sharply elegant, beautifully crafted compositions became the sophisticated epitome of French music between the world wars. For this ballet, Hampson chose Poulenc's Concert Champetre, a work for harpsichord and orchestra that evokes the luminous grace of 18th-century France.

"It's such a crisp, clean work and, like all Poulenc's compositions, it's got a frivolous, playful quality. Themes are juggled and discarded but there's also the most tender and lyrical sections," he says. "There were concerns about using a harpsichord concerto, with the chance that the music would be a small, almost apologetic sound. But this is inspirational stuff and the fact that I'm passionate about it drove me to choreograph this work in four weeks. It was all there in my mind."

While a structure already existed, the steps followed, then, much later, the design for the work.

"In the case of Silhouette, there isn't one. It's an idea of an 'appearance' on stage, the notion of silhouettes. There's an element there which I think works."

For Simmons, A Song In The Dark is the third work he's choreographed for his former company. He now lives in a foreign city confronting an exciting and, he adds, somewhat frightening phase of his career in dance. "This is something that I've always wanted to do but somehow I have progressed to this stage faster than I initially thought. My ultimate dream? At the end of my career as a choreographer to look back and be pleased with whatever I've created. It's as simple as that."

ROYAL NZ BALLET SERVES UP TRIPLE DELIGHT

John Daly-Peoples

National Business Review

Dance review: The Dominion Post

By JENNIFER SHENNAN 25 March 2010

This season marks the end of a national tour of the "triple bill" season by our national ballet company. It's an exuberant evening of beautiful dancing by a troupe that could hold its own on any international stage (and sometimes does), so its absence from the arts festival here in its home town is puzzling to say the least.

Each work opens with a silhouetted solo dancer gesturing the kinesphere of space around the body, then finding the trace movements within the torso where these originate. It works as a declaration of commitment to the classical dance vocabulary, and yet there are asymmetric hip thrusts and torso ripples throughout the evening that wink at us from across history and assure us that the dancing is really "from there to here".

As duo, trio, lines, then full groupings, these very fine dancers spin an enchanted performance. Feminine and masculine styles are clearly etched, yet every dancer has exciting freedom to realise a personal style. Breathtakingly beautiful lighting, by Jordan Tuinman, gifts an extra dimension to each of the works.

Christopher Hampson, in Silhouette, uses Poulenc's Concert Champetre to delicious effect and the vintage sound of the harpsichord makes a perfect foil to the classical lines of the dance. Gary Harris has designed elegant tutus of white, silver and black that realise all the exquisite patterns in the choreography. It is my favourite piece.

A Song in the Dark, by emerging choreographer Andrew Simmons, shows his genuine talent for dance-making. The wonderfully graduated tones of the females' costumes, designed by Kate Venables, echo an earthiness of the lovingly grounded movement that then lifts as the fold and flow of the dance builds to its beautiful climax. It is my favourite piece.

A Million Kisses to My Skin, choreographed by David Dawson, takes us to a celestial place, to marvel at the glory of these bodies so beautifully trained, so swiftly ricocheting through the air (ballet masters Greg Horsman and Turid Revfeim take a bow). The speed of their flight, the thrilling whirl of their cascading costumes, make J S Bach seem like a contemporary composer, which of course he is. It is my favourite piece.

PASSIONS, ALLUSIONS AND CHALLENGING COMPLEXITY
Reviewed by Jenny Stevenson, Theatreview, 25 Mar 2010

2010 will be a year of change for the Royal New Zealand Ballet with the departure at the end of year of Gary Harris who has held tenure as Artistic Director since 2001. From Here to There, the Company’s first season of the year, will be seen by many as a testament to the vision that he has worked to implement during his directorship; the title of the season, perhaps a portent for changes in the future.

Under Harris’ guidance the Company has evolved into a group of very fine dancers and the repertoire has steadily become more Eurocentric in its orientation. The Triple Bill programme represents a perfect example of this direction, with works by two of Europe’s top choreographers – Christopher Hampson and David Dawson – and one New Zealander, Andrew Simmons currently resident in Germany.

It is obvious that the dictates of this repertoire have set the parameters for technical development and the dancers have risen to the challenge. The female dancers of the company, in particular, appear to have blossomed this season, with a noticeable development in eloquent port-de-bras (arm movements) and upper-body suppleness – almost in the Russian style. The men have continued to develop their elevation and have gained a real strength in this area.

The test is Dawson’s knock-out choreography, A Million Kisses to My Skin, first performed by the Company in 2005. In this staging, it is the passion vested in the dancers’ performances, which becomes the most exciting element, with local dancer, Antonia Hewitt, shining in this respect.

A modern-day classic, Kisses is performed against a blank canvas of six panels creating a three-sided box shape, so that the vivid splashes of colour of the dancers’ floating costumes – designed by Yumiko Takeshima, in vermillion red, deep purple and dull gold – create mobile, painterly effects.

The box set contains the dancers’ energies and deflects them outwards to the audience as they perform a beautiful amalgam of mercurial movements to Bach’s Concerto No 1 in D minor. Dawson’s choreography is sensation-based, as the title suggests, and explores multiple levels – floating to the heights, skimming across the floor and darting unexpectedly, with each dancer an effervescent being of their own creation.

In contrast, Hampson’s Silhouette seems almost allegorical, with allusions to darkness and light in the choreography, the costuming by Harris, and in the stark lighting design by Jordan Tuinman. Hampson uses a moving curtain as a scene-shifter to create the illusion of dancers appearing and disappearing, and creates complex inversions in the ordering of the steps.

Francis Poulenc’s music, Concert Champetre, was chosen by Hampson for its “dynamic shifts that are just bonkers” and he reflects this humour in the choreography which is both irreverent and witty. The harpsichord is sometimes reflected by movements that are unexpectedly, sweetly seductive.

The dancers are often placed in the ‘ouvert’ or ‘open’ position to the audience, and even occasionally with their backs turned, as they strike poses reminiscent of Degas’ Young Dancer of Fourteen. There are also elements of jazz dance that subvert the otherwise strictly classical structure. Clytie Campbell and Tonia Looker perform with real presence, one an inversion of the other: Campbell regal and strong; Looker, soft and pliant.

Although it was clearly a winner audience-wise, I found Simmons’ work A Song in the Dark to be less developed choreographically. The movement appears to be designed to create a continuum, with one step flowing into the next, which it certainly achieves. But the canon effect used to create this design sometimes becomes too complex, with too many dancers diverting attention away from the flow and disrupting the momentum.

The dancers clearly relish the technical challenges inherent in Simmons’s choreography, however, and Philip Glass’s Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra provides a pleasing texture. Former RNZB dancer Kate Venables’ costumes in forest green and black show the beautiful lines of the dancers’ bodies to great effect.

Much to reflect on in a programme that showcases this group of highly charged dancers in such a pleasing light.