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| Formation | 1953 |
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| Type | Ballet company |
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Artistic director(s) | Ty King-Wall |
| Website | rnzb |
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company.
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| Formation | 1953 |
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| Type | Ballet company |
| Location |
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Artistic director(s) | Ty King-Wall |
| Website | rnzb |
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company.
New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danish Ballet Principal Poul Gnatt, Beryl Nettleton, Bettina Edwards, [1] another female dancer, and pianist Dorothea Franchi.
In the late 1950s notable New Zealand dancers Rowena Jackson and Philip Chatfield, her English dancer husband, returned from overseas to join the company. A third returning dancer, Russell Kerr, had been dancing in Europe with the Jose Greco Company since 1950, Sadlers Wells Ballet and Ballet Rambert, and from 1952 to 1957 with London Festival Ballet as their principal character dancer. In 1959 Kerr joined forces with NZ Ballet director Poul Gnatt, bringing with him a number of dancers from his own company, Auckland Ballet Theatre, for the 1959–60 season. As United Ballet, the augmented company presented a ground-breaking season which prefigured the things to come. Included amongst the classical works was a major contemporary work, "Prismatic Variations, a collaborative piece between Gnatt and Kerr, with guest artists the celebrated New Zealand dancers Rowena Jackson and Sara Neil.
In 1962 Jon Trimmer returned to the company after studying at the Royal Ballet School in London and performing with the Sadlers Wells Company. He remains a leading artist with the company in 2007 and has performed many character roles over the last 20 years. Russell Kerr succeeded Gnatt as company director from 1962 to 1969.
In the 1960s and 70s the company survived by touring extensively throughout the country. It has been directly funded by the New Zealand government (currently through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage) since 1998.
In 1980 The Nutcracker was performed choregraphed by Patricia Rianne and popular despite being described as being 'staged on a shoestring'. [2]
In 1984 Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of New Zealand granted the title Royal to the company making it the fourth ballet company to receive this honour, along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
A production drawing from Māori culture toured to China in 1985. This work was called Moko, and was choreographed by Gaylene Sciascia and designed by Sandy Adsett. [2]
The 2000 programme included Dracula that was marketed with the slogan, ‘Go to the Bloody Ballet’ [2] and Ihi FrENZy that had a first half by kapa haka champions Te Matarae I Orehu and a second half with dance to the music of New Zealand pop band Split Enz with costumes design by Tracy Grant Lord. [3]
In 2006 the company had 32 dancers, and in 2016 had 36. It performed nationally and overseas. [4]
In 2011, Ethan Stiefel (USA) became Artistic Director, and brought his partner, American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Gillian Murphy, as a guest dancer and coach to the company during his tenure. In November 2014 Francesco Ventriglia (Italy) became Artistic Director.[ citation needed ] In June 2017 he was replaced by Patricia Barker (USA).[ citation needed ] Lester McGrath is the Executive Director.[ citation needed ] In 2024 the Artistic Director is New Zealander Ty King-Wall, the first New Zealander to hold the position since Bryan Ashbridge, and the Executive Director is Tobias Perkins. [5]
In 2021 the Royal New Zealand Ballet received extra government funding with a payout of $1.157m after a budget freeze since 2016 and given in part because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This means the dancers' salaries have increased to at least the living wage to the end of 2022. [6] [7]
There is ongoing controversy about the number of New Zealand dancers in the dance company of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, many being from overseas. Former members Dawn Sanders, Gray Veredon, Patricia Rianne, Nick Carroll and Anne Rowse are critical of processes and some suggesting a quota of New Zealand dancers. [6]
In more recent years The Royal New Zealand Ballet commissioned two original ballets, Hansel & Gretel and Cinderella in 2019 and 2022 respectively. The music for both productions was composed by Claire Cowan, while the choreography was created by Loughlan Prior. [8] [9]
Choreographers in residence listed in 2021 are Loughlan Prior, Shaun James Kelly, Corey Baker and Sarah Foster-Sproull. [10] In 2021 the programme includes Stravinsky’s The Firebird choreographed by Loughlan Prior with Tracy Grant Lord designing. [6]
Ethan Stiefel is an American dancer, choreographer, and director. He was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) from 1997 until July 2012. He was the artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet from 2011 to 2014. His wife is Gillian Murphy, also a principal dancer with ABT.
The Prix de Lausanne is an international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition are now leading stars with major ballet companies around the world. The competition is managed by a non-profit foundation organised by the Fondation en faveur de l'Art chorégraphique and is maintained by various sponsors, patrons and donors.
Janet Karin OAM was born in Perth, Australia in 1938. She became one of Australia's leading dancers in 1956, and has danced with the Victorian Ballet Guild, Borovansky Ballet, and was a founding member of The Australian Ballet. She is a Nationally and Internationally recognised dance educator, and is currently the Head of Artistic Studies and Kinetic Educator for the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, Australia.
Poul Rudolph Gnatt was a Danish dancer and balletmaster active in New Zealand.
Dorothea Anne Franchi was a New Zealand pianist, harpist, music educator and composer.
Loughlan Prior is a dancer and choreographer based in New Zealand. He creates theatre, film and multimedia projects, and has had his work presented in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Germany and the United States.
Kirsten Ralov was a Danish ballerina.
Ty King-Wall is a New Zealand ballet dancer, an ex principal dancer with The Australian Ballet and current Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
The New York International Ballet Competition (NYIBC), was a program providing dance education and employment opportunities for young dancers ages 17 to 24. In 1983 Ilona Copen founded NYIBC, with Igor Youskevitch as first artistic director, in order to fill a void and satisfy a need in the global dance ecosystem. Other international ballet competitions existed, but New York City, considered a dance capital of the world, did not have its own.
Henry Neville Haythorne was an Australian dancer, ballet master, artistic director, and teacher who performed in vaudeville, musicals, and ballet companies in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Australia. He was assistant artistic director of the Scottish Ballet (1969–1974) and artistic director of the Queensland Ballet (1975–1978) and the Royal New Zealand Ballet (1981–1992).
Francesco Ventriglia is an Italian ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director. In 2010 he was appointed as Europe's youngest artistic director by the Florence Opera House at the age of 32, where he held the role as artistic director and principal choreographer for Maggio Danza until 2013. In 2014, he was named the artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet until June 2017, and from January 2018, as adjunct artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, Ballet Nacional Sodre alongside Igor Yebra. Ventriglia is also a choreographer of classical and contemporary ballet, having works performed internationally by companies such as the La Scala Ballet, Arena di Verona, Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Ballet, Grande Theatre du Geneve, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Ballet Nacional Sodre and at the Venice Biannale.
Arts Access Aotearoa was established as a charitable trust in 1995 with funding from Creative New Zealand. It was created primarily to meet a key objective of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 1994: that is, to support "the availability of projects of merit to communities or sections of the population that would otherwise not have access to them". Arts Access Aotearoa’s main areas of focus are supporting disabled people to create and participate in art of all kinds; encouraging performing arts companies, venues, producers and artists to increase their accessibility; and facilitating arts-based rehabilitative projects and programmes in prisons. It receives core funding from Creative New Zealand and has a major contract with the Department of Corrections. It also has support and sponsorship from local government, philanthropic trusts and businesses around New Zealand.
The New Zealand School of Dance was established in 1967 and is a tertiary educational institute in New Zealand that teaches contemporary dance and ballet. It started as the National School of Ballet, and after contemporary dance was added in 1982 the name was changed to the New Zealand School of Dance.
Sue Paterson (1953–2018) was a New Zealand theatre and festival director. In 2017 she was named Senior New Zealander of the Year.
Philip Chatfield was a British born ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director. He danced for the Royal Ballet and was artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Tracy Grant Lord is a leading New Zealand scenographer and costume designer of ballet, theatre and opera. She has worked with numerous Australasian performance companies including the Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Zealand Opera, Australian Ballet, Opera Australia, Queensland Ballet as well as the Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Theatre Companies.
Turid Revfeim is a New Zealand ballet dancer, choreographer, artistic director and ballet tutor.
Sarah Foster-Sproull is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer and senior lecturer in dance studies at the University of Auckland.
Russell Ian Kerr was a New Zealand ballet dancer, choreographer, and producer. After spending the 1950s dancing in Europe, he returned to New Zealand where he was instrumental in the development of the New Zealand Ballet Company and ballet as an art form in New Zealand. He was recognised as one of New Zealand's most significant living artists in 2005 with an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.
Patricia Elizabeth Rianne is a retired New Zealand ballet dancer and choreographer.
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