16 AUG – 15 SEP Touring nationally George Balanchine Vasily Vainonen Andrea Schermoly William Forsythe SERENADE FLAMES OF PARIS STAND TO REASON ARTIFACT II © THE GEORGE BALANCHINE TRUST PAS DE DEUX CONNECT WITH US rnzb.org.nz Vodafone is proud to be the digital connectivity facebook.com/nzballet partner of the Royal New Zealand Ballet – delivering twitter.com/nzballet mobile and broadband solutions to keep you and the instagram.com/nzballet Company connected almost everywhere they travel. youtube.com/nzballet Follow the RNZB on social media today. SERENADE George Balanchine ROYAL NEW ZEALAND BALLET © THE GEORGE BALANCHINE TRUST Artistic Director Patricia Barker INTERVAL Executive Director Lester McGrath Ballet Masters Clytie Campbell, Laura McQueen Schultz, Nicholas Schultz, Michael Auer FLAMES OF PARIS PAS DE DEUX Vasily Vainonen Principals Allister Madin, Paul Mathews, Simone Messmer §, Katharine Precourt, Mayu Tanigaito, PAUSE Nadia Yanowsky Soloists Sara Garbowski, Kate Kadow, Shaun James Kelly, Fabio Lo Giudice, Massimo Margaria, STAND TO REASON Andrea Schermoly Katherine Minor, Loughlan Prior, Joseph Skelton INTERVAL Artists Cadence Barrack, Luke Cooper, Rhiannon Fairless, Kiara Flavin, Madeleine Graham, Kihiro , 2018. Kusukami, Minkyung Lee, Yang Liu*, Anneliese ARTIFACT II William Forsythe Macdonald§, Nathan Mennis, Olivia Moore, Clare Schellenberg, Kirby Selchow, Katherine Skelton, , 2018. Laurynas Vėjalis, Leonora Voigtlander, Caroline Wiley, Wan Bin Yuan Stand to Reason to Stand Todd Scholar Teagan Tank Apprentices Georgia Baxter, Ella Chambers, Lara Stand to Reason to Stand Flannery, Vincent Fraola, Calum Gray, Kaya Weight On secondment Callahan Laird, New Zealand School of Dance Nicole Denney, Dmitri Kulev Classical Ballet Academy, California Arabella Moore, The Dance Education Centre, Tauranga § Guest dancer for Bold Moves. *On parental leave. For casting, please see the screens and free cast sheets available in the foyer. Cover / Mayu Tanigaito, Kate Kadow and Caroline Wiley in Wiley and Caroline Kadow Kate / Mayu Tanigaito, Cover in Garbowski and Sara This page / Mayu Tanigaito BOLD MOVES As beautiful and wonderful as full-length ballets are, I am always excited about a mixed bill. The depth and reach of the dancers’ talents are showcased, their versatility and dynamic range are stretched and their athleticism shines. The four works in today’s performance truly sheer brilliance that each of them brings to showcase all that is great in dance from the the stage in this little jewel of a work. sublime beauty of George Balanchine’s iconic Stand to Reason, a work I commissioned in work, Serenade, to the bravura pas de deux, 2018 for our Strength & Grace programme Flames of Paris, to Stand to Reason as it has continued to gain popularity. Recently takes its rightful place among great ballets performed at the Wanaka Festival of Colour to to Artifact II with its showcase of the rave reviews the work showcases the strength physicality and endurance that a magnificent of unity and the power and depth of artistry dancer can achieve. from our beautiful female dancers. This is a Serenade stands out in the DNA and history of work worthy to call the next generation of the company; performed here last in 1985 it great dance. I am very proud of our ballet stands as a rite of passage for any major ballet master Laura Schultz and those from the company in the world. I have enjoyed every original cast for meticulously re-staging the moment staging this work for the company, work with great care and commitment. the hours spent in the studio bringing this Artifact II is pure brilliance, beginning where beautiful ballet alive with the dancers have Balanchine left off. Forsythe takes the human been joyous, and getting to know each and body and elongates the line and structure every one of them better through their bringing our attention to that of the negative dedication and hard work has been a true space that surrounds the body during pleasure. I thank Michael Auer for all his help movement. The work demands athleticism, and assistance during the staging process and endurance, utter abandonment to the music for the care he has taken with each dancer as and commitment to the steps. The work leaves we have breathed the technique and freedom me breathless as I watch the physical demands of Balanchine movement to them. and the sheer brilliance of movement on stage. I have added a wonderful bravura pas de A big thank you to Thierry Guiderdoni for deux from the full-length ballet Flames of bringing his knowledge and energy to the Paris. A true iconic show case for the most staging of this work. talented of dancers. It stands out as one of I can only hope that the works in today’s the greatest challenging pas de deux of all performance move you, delight you and time. I could not be more proud of the leave you breathless. dancers for throwing themselves at the challenges this work has to offer and for the PATRICIA BARKER | Artistic Director Kia ora and welcome to Bold Moves, presenting three definitive dance works (plus a little extra!) to audiences in Wellington, Auckland, Palmerston North, Christchurch, Dunedin and Napier this winter. The four works which make up Bold Moves Wellington Partner Wellington City Council, are the first to be rehearsed at our new Dance Northern Partner Foundation North and Centre on Wakefield Street. It has been Telecommunications Partner Vodafone. exciting to see how Wellingtonians of all ages I would also like to give a special thank you are taking the opportunity to watch the to our hundreds of personal supporters from dancers at work through the studio windows. all over New Zealand, especially the Friends It’s also been a pleasure to welcome visitors of the RNZB, members of the Dress Circle, into the studio and our costume facility over donors to the Annual Appeal, supporters of the last few weeks, including our professional the Ballet Foundation of New Zealand and development seminars for dance teachers our growing family of ‘Partner a Dancer’ from throughout New Zealand and Australia, donors. Thank you also to the supporters held during the July school holidays. who are contributing to our fundraising The choreographers whose works are initiatives for our brand new Hansel & Gretel performed in Bold Moves made, and in the – Christmas is not too far away, and we case of William Forsythe and Andrea couldn’t be more excited about this wonderful Schermoly, are still making, ‘bold moves’ world premiere! of their own: leaving friends and family Last, but not least, thank you to you, our behind in order to make art in a new place audiences. I hope you will have a wonderful and forging their own, distinctive, creative time at Bold Moves! path. We all need that courage and Nō reirā, tēnā koutou katoa, conviction in our lives. We also need the support of people who believe in our work, LESTER MCGRATH | Executive Director and I am as always pleased to acknowledge the help of the organisations and individuals whose support and encouragement underpins everything that we do. Our grateful thanks go to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatū Taonga, National Touring Partner Pub Charity Limited, Season Sponsor Ryman Healthcare, Major Media Partner MediaWorks, BOLD MOVES SERENADE ‘ I knew and loved Tchaikovsky’s Created for students at the newly formed Serenade ever since I was a child. School of American Ballet, Serenade is I always wanted to choreograph to one of the few ballets that can be described as iconic. it. And it turned out to be my first ballet in America. I hadn’t planned 85 years after its premiere, it has become synonymous with American ballet, instantly it, it just happened that way.’ recognisable to ballet lovers around the world GEORGE BALANCHINE1 and a potent symbol of Balanchine’s breathing new life into the Russian ballet traditions in Choreography George Balanchine which he was steeped, and which he had © The George Balanchine Trust transported to a new country. Stager Patricia Barker ‘I’m not very old, but I still remember that world, Assistant to the stager Michael Auer which is gone forever. I was born and raised in Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky the old Russia… some ten years after Tchaikovsky’s death. [Marius] Petipa Costumes Barbara Karinska [choreographer of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Lighting realisation Nigel Percy Beauty] died when I was about six years old. But Tchaikovsky and Petipa were alive for me. And people around me talked about them as if they were alive… when I was creating Serenade, Tchaikovsky encouraged me. Almost the whole Serenade is done with his help.’2 The ballet begins with seventeen women onstage, poised, motionless and simply clad. What unfolds is plotless, yet somehow laden with meaning and unspoken narratives, as the dancers fill the stage with exquisite movement and with deep emotion. Balanchine later related how the ballet’s structure came about by chance: on the first day of rehearsals he had seventeen dancers; another day only seven. Sometimes he had men as well as women; one day one of the women was late; one day another one fell in the studio. All looks back to the 18th century in its transparent these happenings became part of the ballet. orchestration and elegant, flowing melodies In early stagings of Serenade, the dancers in – very different to the Second Piano Concerto, solo passages came from and returned to the Capriccio Italien and the 1812 Overture, the corps de ballet. Over time, this has changed which were also completed in 1880. It is with a number of solo roles being cast. These interesting to contemplate how a work which include the ‘Waltz Girl’, the ‘Russian Girl’ and was never intended as anything other than a the ‘Dark Angel’.