When asked why people should check out Tutus on Tour, Peacock-Coyle said: “The RNZB’s Tutus on Tour is renowned for touring interesting and fun ballet around the country, and we are incredibly pleased that Toitoi is on their schedule.”
“2023 is also RNZB’s 70th birthday year, so they’re guaranteed to bring the best performances from across the years,” she said.
To begin the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 70th birthday year, Tutus on Tour 2023 looks back at the RNZB’s early days, with performances in some of Aotearoa’s smaller cities and towns and the loveliest historic theatres.
Along with Toitoi, the group will also perform in Kāpiti, Carterton, Gisborne, Whanganui, Hamilton, Blenheim, Nelson, Kerikeri, Ashburton and Whangārei.
RNZB artistic director Patricia Barker has carefully curated a collection of works that encapsulate the history of ballet, and her desire to share treasures from the RNZB’s recent past alongside works new and old that the dancers can’t wait to perform.
The Tutus on Tour 2023 programme is completed with two works, each for eight dancers: the New Zealand premiere of Brian Enos’ elegantly neo-classical Cold Winter’s Waiting (2013) and Greg Horsman’s classical showpiece Holberg Suite, created for Tutus on Tour 2009 and now given a welcome revival.
Barker says the 70th-anniversary Tutus on Tour is a beautiful journey through magical ballet moments.
“It is an opportunity for audiences to experience how ballet has evolved through the decades and for the dancers to showcase their incredible abilities to shift choreographic styles,” she said.
Marie Taglioni’s Le Papillon (The Butterfly) from 1860 and Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain were made almost two centuries apart, and both unveil the timeless magic of a couple dancing together, creating a breath-taking, intimate world onstage for the audience.
“After the Rain is truly magical,“ says RNZB’s Damani Campbell Williams, a dancer who joined the company in 2022.
“Although there is no exact narrative, each movement carries so much weight and meaning that I get completely lost in it, it’s the ultimate feeling of escapism, and the intimacy of the piece allows us to take the audience along the journey with us,” Williams said.
“I’m so excited to share this masterpiece with RNZB audiences and travel this beautiful country.”
Principal Mayu Tanigaito celebrates her 11th anniversary with the RNZB this year, after her first performance 10 years ago, and says she has performed in many towns with Tutus on Tour, and has many great memories.
“The smaller venues allow for a more intimate connection with the audiences, and we always feel very welcome,” Tanigaito said.
“I love the Kiwi hospitality, some venues provide snacks, and sometimes children give us flowers and ask for autographs,” she said.
While the RNZB can’t perform their biggest shows in the smaller venues and so they can’t visit as often, Tanigaito is proud to dance for a ballet company which finds a way to bring ballet to the regions.
