Commotion: a Michael Parmenter Retrospective at the SkyCity Theatre

Boundless energy from a fine cast makes for a compelling performance.

Such richness. Such dancers. Such an exquisite sampler from the extensive workbox of a master choreographer. Parmenter's retrospective is to be savoured like a rare and vintage wine or appreciated like the special edition of a wonderful book, for its leather and gilt binding, the quality of its paper and finesse of font as well as for its words.

The programme opens with the brief but beautiful Psalm 24, from Jerusalem, featuring the voice of Mahinarangi Tocker, and a surprise performance by Parmenter. So the evening begins with what feels like a bonus.

Then the stage is alive to The Bach and the spectacle of 16 of our finest dancers, reeling and spinning and weaving most intricate choreographic patterns of lyrical complexity, juxtaposing boundless energy with a chorus of careful control.

The Parmenter signature works of Tantra (from Go, 1988) and Fields of Jeopardy (1988) follow. The Tantraduet is as stunning, 17 years on, as it ever was, performed by the peachy Rachel Atkinson and Tim Fletcher, with beautiful backlighting by David Eversfield.

The energy soars even higher with the jubilant Fields of Jeopardy.

Svadebka, to Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces, is a newer work, first performed by a student cast three years ago, and reflects Parmenter's growing interest in choral music. A complex and clever exploration of the dynamics of a peasant wedding, it features veteran dancers Lyne Pringle, Kilda Northcott and Chris Jannides as the parents of the bride and groom. Its deeper and darker observations are a warm-up for what is to come.

The second half of the programme opens to the weighty challenge of The Dark Forest, a Kafkaesque study of repression and obsession, guilt and blame. The angst and the agony, marvellously reflected to and fro in music by Anthony Watson, and in movement, have a nerve-twanging and mind-bending effect, which is far from pleasant but compelling and flawlessly observed.

The finale is the The Golden Builders, from Jerusalem, set against the magnificent background of Colin McCahon's painting, Otago Peninsula (1946-9) and the rich words of James K. Baxter - the whole a spectacle of shimmering orange, russet, ochre and gold in which this miraculous cast dance their hearts out and end up flying.