Skoog leaves ballet a far happier place

By BERNADETTE RAE

It is five years since Matz Skoog arrived on New Zealand's dance scene. In 1996 he took on the role of artistic director for the Royal New Zealand Ballet - and stepped into a near-terminal funding crisis.

The ballet could hardly have been in worse shape financially, literally teetering from day to uncertain day.

But within weeks, negotiations were completed to give the ballet a modest but far more secure future and the little Swede, with an illustrious background as a dancer, teacher and director of international repute, came up smiling.

Skoog, who leaves next month for a position with the English National Ballet, is the last person to claim all the kudos for the changes, which put the ballet company on a similar funding system to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

"We have to be grateful for the consistent funding we now have. It certainly allowed us to begin to look forward and to make proper plans.

"But the RNZB still receives only a fraction of the amount that goes to the NZSO. Dancers are still paid only one-third of the NZSO musician's rate."

Skoog has ensured a steady flow of international talent into the company, in the form of visiting teachers and choreographers, designers and specialist producers which has improved standards.

The repertoire has been vastly expanded, with works like Frederick Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee, Ballanchine's Allegro Brillante and the masterpiece Soldatenmis, by Jiri Kylian.

An equal amount of Skoog's enthusiasm and support has gone to New Zealand choreographers.

Douglas Wright's Rose and Fell was added to the repertoire in 1997, plus Graeme Murphy's Protecting Veil and Eric Languet's Alice.

A dashing piece with crashing music, Smashing Sweet Vixen by Shona McCullagh played in the 1998 triple bill with Soldatenmis and Australian Jonathon Taylor's 'Tis Goodly Sport. Russell Kerr's Peter Pan was added the following year, as was Michael Parmenter's Seven Deadly Sins.

In 1998 Skoog oversaw the company's move to its first permanent, purpose-built premises at Wellington's Westpac St James Theatre and he also changed the company's internal structure by dispensing with the hierarchical structure.

Lead roles no longer go to named "principal dancers," but are up for grabs on merit and suitability. The move has lead to a happier company with a more friendly and open atmosphere and less bitchiness.

Skoog will be artistic director with the English National Ballet. He danced with that company for 12 years, and has been described as "one of its most virtuosic and charismatic performers", according to an article in The Times.

When Skoog returns to the company he will have to "bring new artistic life to an institution almost crippled by a perennial lack of cash."

Skoog is unfazed. He plans to wipe out any deficit by the end of the financial year, again with the help of a funding increase, already in the pipeline.

But Skoog is not happy about leaving New Zealand. "The company here still has several more steps to take before it becomes what I hope for it," he says. "The New Zealand audience is just too small, so more opportunities have to be created to perform, to develop a fuller schedule."

That means expanding into the Australian and Asian and Pacific markets and Skoog is adamant that the company is "good enough to be the leader in that market".

"Now we have to sell it, to make the right connections and talk to the right impresarios. There has to be a good repertoire that can be toured. And the company has to be flexible enough to respond to invitations at short notice."

The company's mission statement states its desire to be a "touring ballet company of excellence". And that implies a company with the skills to operate within a tourable structure, with people willing to move about and able to foster the right business connections overseas.

"A lot of other things would flow from there," he says. "Things like advances in technique that come with an expanding repertoire and a higher profile and reputation attract new people with higher standards."