KEY POINTS:
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a perennially young company. Situated on the far side of the world, it is inevitable that many of its keenest and brightest will set off for international experience.
They have to - and they are encouraged to. And the ranks are bravely restored with the next batch of bright young things.
And because we are on the far side of the world, it has also been an important focus of the company, at least since the days of Matz Skoog's artistic direction, to source a constant flow of great guest teachers, colourful choreographers, vibrantly varied works and the broadest of possible dance experiences to the company and its audience. Even though dancers come and dancers go, the company's ethos and its repertoire has been well-steeped in a pretty sophisticated dance brew.
Their stunning achievement with the challenging and gorgeous Jorma Elo piece, Plan to A, in this new triple-bill programme, is patent proof of the success of this energetic outreach.
Elo has taken the international scene by storm with his highly original choreographic work. It is intense and intensely musical, funny, touching, quirky. Seven dancers - Clytie Campbell, Antonia Hewitt, Lucy Balfour, Paul Mathews, Eliot Rudolph, Michael Braun and Andrew Simmons - took the Aotea Centre by storm on opening night, with their riveting performance in this most riveting of choreographies.
Closely clad in fiery red, fuelled by the surging medieval violins of Heinrich Biber, they moved their bodies and our astonished souls in ways most of us had never previously experienced. Peak performance, for sure.
Paquita, legendary Russian choreographer Marius Petipa's tutu spectacular, was dished up for starters, newly garnished in bouncy scarlet tutus and a modicum of bling. If the initial lines were a little ragged, the corps de ballet warmed up smartly to the task in hand and Yu Takayama was her usual breathtakingly beautiful self. Abigial Boyle took the honours for lyricism, and Michael Braun and Jacob Chown fired up the male roles splendidly.
The strength of the male dancers also shone through in Adrian Burnett's Abhisheka, a hypnotic study of ancient rituals of purification with a slightly menacing shadow side, and set to the compelling composition of John Psathas.
