Header image: The company of Home, Land & Sea, featuring dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Dance Company. Above, from top: Principal Kihiro Kusukami and artist Tessa Karle in The Way Alone. Principals Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson. Principal Kihiro Kusukami and artist Tessa Karle. Principal Ana Gallardo Lobaina and soloist Zacharie Dun. Artist Luke Cooper, principal Ana Gallardo Lobaina, and soloist Zacharie Dun. Artist Catarina Estévez Collins. Principals Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson. The company of The Way Alone.
The three ballets making up the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Home, Land & Sea, in collaboration with the New Zealand Dance Company, couldn’t be more different, in music, costumes, and tone. Their commonalities are simple sets and evocative lighting, putting the focus on the performances.
Stephen Baynes’ The Way Alone, originally conceived for the Hong Kong Ballet in 2006, opens the programme. Set to a score by Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, with costumes by Baynes and the RNZB costume department, and lighting by Jon Buswell, this was a beautiful ballet in the neoclassical sense. Beginning with choral pieces from Liturgy of St John we see the dancers assemble, in grey trousers or dresses, before smaller groups appear for each movement. Katherine Minor, Zacharie Dun and Luke Cooper appear in the opening, romantic, and flowing pas de trois to ‘White Nights’, setting the scene for what would come. The costumes accentuate a ballet that is fundamentally founded on classical movements.
Kihiro Kusukami and Dane Head appear in the next movement (‘Lullaby from 16 Children’s Songs, op. 54, no. 1’), before a final piece featuring Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson. The choreography shifts gently between movements, while Tchaikovsky links everything stylistically and musically.
There is comfort in a Tchaikovsky score, even if we are more familiar with his work in full-length ballets. Baynes shows that Tchaikovsky’s output from different compositions works effectively in a 25-minute ballet. He also demonstrates that the music lends itself well to natural movements, with Baynes simply aiming at contemplation. It ends with another choral piece as the dancers reassemble on stage, glancing at a light overhead.
Above, from top: Principal Kate Kadow and artist Calum Gray in Chrysalis. Soloist Zacharie Dun and Artist Jordan Sawtell. Principal Kate Kadow and artist Calum Gray. Principal Kate Kadow and artist Calum Gray. Principal Kate Kadow reaching for an earlier removed dress, and artist Calum Gray. Soloist Katherine Minor and principal Kihiro Kusukami. Soloist Katherine Minor and principal Kihiro Kusukami. Soloist Jemima Scott.
Chrysalis, the second ballet of the evening and a world première, showcases not just the talent of RNZB choreographer-in-residence Shaun James Kelly but fashion designer Rory William Docherty, set to the music of Philip Glass (‘Metamorphosis’) with lighting design by Daniel Wilson.
The description published by Lucire in May does not do the ballet justice. We described Kelly’s themes of ‘friendship, connections, relationships and self-discovery’, and how those we encounter alter our paths. However, visually this is a far more ingenious ballet and depends on Docherty’s costume designs as much as the choreography.
Two dancers appear dressed in heavy coats, the tailoring hinting at social position and profession. Kelly based the opening pair on his parents. Docherty wanted these opening costumes to convey convention, what people believe they “should” wear in society. The garments, even fedora hats, however, are incredibly light and translucent: there are even pinstripes and Prince of Wales checks stitched into organza. As the dancers remove their outer layers, thereby freeing themselves from the restrictions of society, you notice how sheer and fine they are. Docherty cites Martin Margiela, late-’70s–early ’80s Yves Saint Laurent and Yohji Yamamoto as inspirations.
Hangers drop from overhead and before long there are half a dozen coats and dresses suspended over the stage.
Each of the dances feature the shedding of layers to reveal the person’s true self. Kelly also wanted to demonstrate how our everyday clothes themselves are costumes that show whether we conform or not.
One powerful moment in Chrysalis sees one dancer reach for her suspended dress, a momentary desire to mask her true self—a reminder that not everyone is ready to transform or show themselves authentically. But ultimately, each member in Chrysalis’s cast finds their personal growth.
The grandest of the trio was saved till last: the world première of Moss Te Ururangi Patterson’s (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) Home, Land & Sea, with an original score by Shayne P. Carter (Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer). Te Ururangi Patterson also created the costumes with the RNZB costume department, while Jon Buswell lit the ballet.
Carter’s score is effects-filled and modern, the opposite to where we began the evening. This is an energetic and impactful ballet, even confronting, with Te Ururangi Patterson exploring the intersection between te Ao Māori and contemporary dance.
‘Home’, the first section in three movements, begins with jarring notes in Carter’s score, almost announcing the birth of our home. The movement is filled with metaphors about unity as the performers dance powerfully, with occasional sounds representing colonialism, interrupting the unity but ultimately never breaking it. At moments the score stops and the dancers’ loud breathing is heard, our interpreting the hā as the energy within that also unites us.
‘Land’ also features three movements reflecting the constant changes underfoot, with earthquakes and other natural forces shaping and reshaping the whenua. Again with powerful dance movements, ‘Sea’ represents how the current takes us and transforms us. It is not nostalgic—while the ballet acknowledges the past in the formation of the land and sea, it grounds itself in the present.
Te Ururangi Patterson gives plenty for the audiences to absorb and contemplate about belonging and who we are as the ballet finishes. How fleeting are our presences on this land that has been here for generations before us? And if that is the case, why should we have differences when we are just temporary guardians of our spaces here? It ends on a hopeful note.
The programme has something for everyone: from neoclassical to contemporary, from a classical score to an atmospheric, turbulent one. It is impossible to play favourites as this depends on one’s preferences. Audiences will not be disappointed as the substantial talent of both the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Dance Company is on display.
Home, Land & Sea continues at the St James till July 26, before heading to the Aotea Centre, Auckland, July 31–August 2; and the Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, August 8–9.
Above, from top: Anya Down (New Zealand Dance Company artist) and the company of Home, Land & Sea with dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Dance Company. Anya Down (New Zealand Dance Company artist) in Home, Land & Sea. Soloist Zacharie Dun (Royal New Zealand Ballet). The company of Home, Land & Sea, featuring dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Dance Company. Stella Clarkson (NZDC artist in partnership with NZSD) and RNZB artist Gretchen Steimle. Stella Clarkson (NZDC artist in partnership with NZSD) with the company of Home, Land & Sea.
Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.
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