The Air New Zealand Gala Evening of Stars at the Aotea Centre

By BERNADETTE RAE

It was truly an evening of stars. There was Lisa-Maree Cullum, expatriate New Zealander, showcasing the technical and artistic sparkle that illuminates her career in the elite altitudes of European dance.

There was her handsome stage partner, Oliver Wehe, another stunning luminosity - especially in his white tights.

There was the gravity-defying Thomas Edur, the gorgeous masculine half of the Estonian dance partnership, usually in high orbit in more northern skies, alongside the beautiful, fairytale Agnes Oaks.

And there were our more familiar stars, dancers of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, who took their place in these classical, formal and highly mannered celebrity proceedings with a significant twinkle.

The gala season was the last under the direction of the much-esteemed Matz Skoog, who departs this month. Although it fielded a smaller company over fewer days and venues than it might have done, it was a fitting tribute to the immense work Skoog has achieved with the company by bringing in the best the world has to offer, not just dancers but teachers, choreographers, designers, innovators and keepers of the finest of traditions, and by raising our own standards in all these endeavours to match.

So while the guest artists on this occasion were totally splendid, there was equal satisfaction and pleasure in seeing Cameron McMillan and Larissa Wright, Yo Otaki and Chen Jian Guo, Jane Turner and Pieter Symons, Graham Fletcher - the whole ensemble in fact - perform so beautifully and with a palpable passion. They were far from outshone.

McMillan, who is also sadly leaving these shores, was up there in the gasp-drawing moments, both in the Mark Morris piece Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes and in George Balanchine's Allegro Brillante.

Cullum and Wehe were splendid in the powerful and haunting Nuages, from choreographer Jiri Kylian. This contemporary work showed off the range of Cullum's extraordinary strengths and the power of her stage presence.

Edur's leaps in the Don Quixote pas de deux were heart-stopping, with soaring elevations of enormous strength and spell-binding control. The complex lyricism of his and Oake's interpretation of the Schubert Impromptu more quietly, but just as surely, took the breath away.

There were stellar performances also from pianist David Guerin and the Auck-land Philharmonia.