It is only one week until the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2013 season opens at the St James Theatre in Wellington on 27 February with Made to Move - three world premieres in one night.
Christchurch born choreographer Andrew Simmons returns to the company to present Of days the follow up to his internationally acclaimed work A Song in the Dark. “After the success of A Song in the Dark, so many people came up to me and said “I saw this” or “I felt that”, they were moved in some way. It is their interpretations that are interesting and inspiring to me as a choreographer, that is what makes dance truly alive, that intimate interaction between the choreographer, the dancer and the audience.”
Javier De Frutos, one of the worlds’s most acclaimed and innovative choreographers presents his work The Anatomy of a Passing Cloud, a love letter to the Pacific written through dance. “It is right for me to do a piece in New Zealand, a Pacific Island with Pacific music, and what I love most about working with this company is that it is unstructured enough to allow their instincts to take over and create something primal.”
Artistic director Ethan Stiefel completes the line-up and debuts his first original work for the RNZB, a piece that he is thrilled to present to New Zealand audiences. “This work is a piece that has been in my head for two years. It is rewarding to see the ideas become a reality and to observe the amount of enthusiasm and exuberance the dancers are putting into creating it.”
“I am particulary passionate about presenting brand new work that captures the RNZB’s innovative spirit and continues to strengthen the company as a creative force. In Made to Move we are working with choreographers with such different backgrounds, choices of music and sources of inspiration, I have no doubt that the most classical ballet admirer to the modern enthusiast will be engaged by the show.”
Ethan’s fiancée international ballet star Gillian Murphy will dance the lead role in Ethan’s piece Bier Halle. Bier Halle is a spirited comedy which Ethan believes will “delight audiences with laughter, lederhosen and virtuoso technique”.
Made to Move tours to 7 centres, Wellington, Napier, Auckland, Takapuna, Palmerston North, Dunedin and Ashburton, opening next week 27 February and closing at the Ashburton Trust Event Centre on 24 March.
