Cultural leap for dancers

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is to perform Swan Lake in China in its first big international tour in almost a decade.

The month-long tour in August and September will visit eight centres, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

General manager Sue Paterson said the tour was a "wonderful opportunity for the dancers and a chance to develop the profile of the company offshore".

The company is touring New Zealand with Swan Lake, choreographed by Russell Kerr and designed by New Zealand-born Kristian Fredrikson.

Originally, it tried to sell its own production of Ihi Frenzy - a show comprising kapa haka and the music of Split Enz. However, the promoter felt it was too "alien" for Chinese audiences, Ms Paterson said.

"He felt it was too difficult to sell and Swan Lake is known and easier to promote."

Chinese independent promoter Cui Yang - an A-listed promoter with the Chinese Government - would finance the tour.

The shortfall would be made up by grants from the Asia 2000 Foundation and investment company Guinness Peat Group.

The company's assistant artistic director, Ou Lu, met the promoter while at the Shanghai performing arts market in October last year.

The tour announcement came after six months of negotiations.

Ms Paterson would not divulge the cost, saying it was commercially sensitive.

Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Judith Tizard said the cultural exchange reinforced the excellent relations between New Zealand and China - NZ's fifth-biggest trading partner - particularly after Prime Minister Helen Clark's visit last year.

The company's production of Dracula made headlines in Australia when it played a three-week season in Melbourne in 2000.

It has been nine years since the company embarked on its last major international tour, to the east coast of the United States.

Ms Paterson said she was in negotiations with promoters in the US and Australia to tour Ihi Frenzy.

It was a difficult production to sell because of the enormous cast of 85 people.

A tour to the United Kingdom was planned for 2004.

She would not be drawn on the repertoire, other than to say it would have some local content.

- NZPA