Great leap forward with diverse trilogy

Scene from Abhisheka. Photos by Maarten Holl.
Scene from Abhisheka. Photos by Maarten Holl.
Clytie Campbell and Eliot Rudolph
Clytie Campbell and Eliot Rudolph
Scene from Paquita
Scene from Paquita
Eliot Rudolph and Clytie Campbell
Eliot Rudolph and Clytie Campbell
Scene from Paquita
Scene from Paquita

The latest Royal New Zealand Ballet production, Red, is a balletic kaleidoscope that will appeal to both aficionado and non-aficionado. 

The three-part ballet flows, in satisfying bite-sized instalments, through classical, tribal and contemporary influences.

The production opens with Act 3 of the classical 19th-century Russian ballet Paquita, which artistic director Gary Harris has drenched in communist red.

The 25-minute work by legendary Russian choreographer Marius Petipa, considered the father of classical ballet, is set to a lush score by Ludwig Minkus.

Minimalist lighting creates an arena of suspense and metaphor. Spinning matadors and red tutus metamorphose into heroes surrounded by blood-red roses flung into a bullring.

It is a grand-scale work, structured and steeped in the traditional Russian school.

‘‘[It's] a work that demands strict schooling and discipline. A traditional tutu ballet in the old style,'' Harris says.

The ballet leaps from the classical to the tribal in Abhisheka, which opens with a golden Clytie Campbell solo in a glittering amber room set.

The 25-minute piece was originally commissioned by the RNZB in 2004 for the Saltarello season, but has been given a new twist by Christchurch-born choreographer Adrian Burnett.
‘‘It's really nice to be doing it again,'' Burnett (37) says before the performance.

‘‘You do all that work and it's gone so quickly. It's basically the same choreography, but a totally different group of people, and that's nice. That's what makes it keep living,'' he says.

‘‘It's an abstract contemporary ballet. It's like looking at a painting, but it's a painting that moves. That's the lovely thing about dance; it's a living and breathing thing.''

The abstract work is inspired by the ritualistic and sacrificial cleansing of a chosen one.

‘‘Abhisheka is a Hindu cleansing ritual. It's all about sprinkling and pouring and cleansing. It's almost an initiation, really. There are motifs and symbols and details all through the work and a sense of completion at the end. There's a nice circular feel about it.''

Abhisheka has been enhanced by a score of the same name produced by John Psathas, of Wellington.

‘‘I started researching New Zealand composers and discovered John Psathas, who is an internationally-renowned composer,'' Burnett says. ‘‘The collaboration has worked really well.''

Burnett is happy to step on classical ballet toes and is an advocate of ballet moving with the times. ‘‘Some people are purists and that's fine, but I like to break down delineations and do more collaborative works. The classical and contemporary hybrid thing; that's when it gets interesting for me,'' he says.

‘‘Ballet is so difficult technically. Because dancers are training from such a young age there is repetition, so you can get the skill set you need. It's almost dogmatic, in a sense. That's why I love finding out what gets the dancers going. Once you see them grab it and inhabit it, it gets so exciting.''

The highlight of the Red trilogy is Plan to A by Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo.

The energetic and inspiring 16-minute work is played out underneath an Escher-esque latticework.

Elo (46) is one of the most sought-after choreographers in the world and is renowned for his high-tempo, fast-paced works.

‘‘I don't, anymore, divide dance into classical and contemporary,'' he says, two hours before the Red premiere.

Plan to A chronicles his journey as a choreographer and influences such as ground-breaking choreographers William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian and Matz Ek.

‘‘As a dancer, you try to learn from other dancers. Now I'm changing my focus point to choreography and I'm looking at the Rubik's Cube of that stage,'' he says.

Elo is the resident choreographer for the Boston Ballet, but is based in Denhaag, the Netherlands.

He danced professionally with the Finnish and Swedish national ballets and Nederlands Dans Theater before branching into choreography with his 2005 work Plan to B, which spoke of the transition from dancer to choreographer.

‘‘When I make a ballet I try to be actively aware of the situation I am in in life and if that transfers to the dancers and piece it can be a powerful thing.

"The audience may not understand it, but they can feel the emotion of it,'' he says. ‘‘Plan to B was a moment in my life when I decided to stop dancing and be a full-time choreographer. Plan to A is inside the work of a choreographer. You've got your own laboratory of dancers and you can do whatever you want with them. That's very exciting.

‘‘Artists should never be too concentrated on the result, I feel. Their focus should be on finding things in themselves and relating their performances to their own life.''

Red is the RNZB's first offering this season. It will also perform Romeo and Juliet in July, although the production is, unfortunately, too big to be accommodated in the Regent Theatre and won't visit Dunedin.

Its 2008 swansong will be an October tour of Don Quixote, featuring principal Sir Jon Trimmer, who celebrates an astonishing 50 years with the company this year.

- Nigel Benson travelled to Auckland courtesy of the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

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