It is touted as the work that changed ballet forever: William Forsythe's In the Middle Somewhat Elevated.
As Royal New Zealand Ballet dancer Shawn Kelly says, it is a work so famous every dancer wants to perform it.
And Royal New Zealand Ballet's new artistic director, Francesco Ventriglia, says it, Alexander Ekman's Cacti and Andonis Foniadakis' Selon Desir are masterpieces New Zealanders should not have to ‘‘buy airfares'' to see.
The programme was a big challenge for the company but one it had risen to, he said. It was the first time RNZB had performed a Forsythe work, which was a huge milestone for the company.
‘‘New Zealand should be proud of its national company; this programme is a diamond.
‘‘New Zealand audiences are more than ready for this opportunity and deserve to have this masterpiece in their country.''
And New Zealanders seem to agree, going by box-office sales, he said. It premiered in Wellington last weekend as part of the New Zealand Festival with near-capacity audiences and all five of the Auckland Arts Festival performances have already sold out. It is also going to Christchurch before coming to Dunedin.
It is Ventriglia's first programme for the RNZB and has been in the pipeline for nearly two years.
The programme gave an insight to where he planned to take the company, as well as reflecting his own personality.
‘‘The three pieces have in common the different ways they use light and the different ways they use speed. The title also reflects the kind of man I am; driving life at the speed of light. I have a lot of energy.''
Of the three works, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated had a special place in his heart, as he performed one of his first solo roles as a young dancer at La Scala in the work.
To perform each of the works, the company worked closely with the choreographers and their ‘‘stagers'', the people entrusted to ensure the vision of the choreographer is carried through.
With In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Forsythe sent his trusted assistant Thierry Guiderdoni to New Zealand to stage the work.
Forsythe, who is American, choreographed the work for the Paris Opera Ballet at the request of its then director Rudolf Nureyev. It was first staged in 1987.
His most famous work, it is danced worldwide by companies from the Mariinsky in St Petersburg to the Sao Paulo Companhia de Danca from Brazil.
Mr Guiderdoni, who lives in Frankfurt, has worked for Forsythe for 10 years following a dance career that began when his mother recognised his love of dance when he was only 6 or 7 years old.
After dancing for the Frankfurt Ballet from 1991 to 2004, he was appointed ballet master and artistic assistant to Forsythe and also his agenda manager at Forsythe's own company, Forsythe Productions. He is one of only four artists worldwide permitted to ‘‘stage'' In the Middle Somewhat Elevated.
‘‘It is a very special honour. I have learnt so much from him. I know his style, his views, so am able to try and bring them to other dancers. It is gratifying.''
He spent six weeks working with the dancers from the RNZB, discovering a company that was hungry to learn.
‘‘They do not have attitudes. They are down-to-earth. Want to learn a lot.''
The work was a challenge and very hard technically to perfect, he said.
‘‘It pushes dancers to the limit of their classical vocabulary and in order to do that the dancer must have total trust in what they know to push further to get the style required in that piece.''
He was ‘‘very happy'' at the outcome, having spent weeks coaching, researching and adapting the work to suit dancers' qualities.
‘‘It's almost a love story. You get to know a person and they get to know you.''
As well as working with the dancers, he ensures the costumes are properly designed and adapted to the dancers.
While Ekman, an international choreographer and director, came to New Zealand to help select the dancers to perform his work Cacti, he also brought Ana Maria Lucaciu with him to stage the work.
Born in Bucharest, Ms Lucaciu went to Canada aged 12 to study dance and from there has gone on to perform with ballets around the world, most recently at Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York.
It was there she met Ekman and they became close, so when she left Cedar Lake he asked her to take part in a production of Swan Lake.
‘‘We did really well together.''
From there, she began to learn the staging process, something she had hoped to get into but did not think would happen so quickly.
‘‘I'm extremely honoured and grateful. There is such a responsibility to take care of the work. It is a very fragile endeavour.''
She felt she knew Ekman and the spirit of his work but it still required hard work.
‘‘I feel I have to go back to the basic rendition, the core or essence of a piece before I can go there.''
Even choosing the words to communicate the moves to the dancers was important.
The work, with its 16 platforms, elaborate lights and 16 cacti, combined with four live string musicians playing off-score, meant it had some challenges.
‘‘There are a lot of elements that need to be very well co-ordinated, as there is a lot going on. It's also complex musically.''
It was a piece developed by Ekman for the Netherlands Dance Theatre 2 and was first performed in The Hague in 2010.
The work was a pointed reference to the pretences of the artwork and parodies those who review or critique it.
‘‘The interpretation they can give things that are not there - the meaning they give to things. The cacti is what it seems. Alex just wanted to use cacti.''
Ms Lucaciu has also been impressed by the positivity and willingness to learn of the RNZB company.
‘‘Maybe it's the distance. They're purer, very hungry, open, responsive.''
In her time with the company, she had seen the dancers grow. It was an incredibly challenging work physically and mentally.
‘‘They're like different people. I've never had dancers to work in their time off. It's weird, inspiring.''
While it is the company's first performances of Selon Desir (according to desire) in New Zealand, it first performed the work during its European tour last year.
Prior to that Foniadakis, who is Greek by birth and has his own dance company in France, spent five weeks with the dancers perfecting the work.
It was premiered by the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve in 2004 and ‘‘attempts to tap into structures of the opening choruses of both the St Matthew and St John Passions by Bach for the inspirations of its movements and interactions'', Foniadakis says.
The set solely consists of 16 large speakers, which move up and down above the dancers in reaction to the intensity of the music composed and designed by Julien Tarride.
The London Evening Standard described the performance of the RNZB as ‘‘Sixteen dancers ride a gale of movement, long loose hair tossed with whiplash motions . . . this almost biblical throng of bodies like a gang of feral angles''.
To see
Speed of Light, Regent Theatre, March 16, 7.30pm
