The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a

ballet company A ballet company is a type of dance troupe that performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-rou ...

based in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company.

History

New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by

Royal Danish Ballet The Royal Danish Ballet ( Danish: ''Den Kongelige Ballet'') is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Danish Theatre in Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world a ...

Principal

Poul Gnatt Poul Rudolph Gnatt (24 March 1923 – 15 October 1995) was a Danish dancer and balletmaster active in New Zealand. Childhood Gnatt was born in Baden, Austria. His father was Kai Gnatt, flower merchant, and his mother Kaja Olsen, both fro ...

, Beryl Nettleton, Bettina Edwards, another female dancer, and pianist Dorothea Franchi. In the late 1950s notable New Zealand dancers

Rowena Jackson Rowena Othlie Chatfield (née Jackson; 24 March 1926 – 15 August 2024) was a New Zealand prima ballerina. Early life Jackson was born in Invercargill on 24 March 1926 to William Ernest Jackson and Lilian Jane, née Solomon. As a young child ...

and Philip Chatfield, her English dancer husband, returned from overseas to join the company. A third returning dancer,

Russell Kerr Russell Whiston Kerr (1 February 1921 – 15 November 1983), was an Australian-born British Labour Party politician. Early life Kerr was born in Sydney, and was educated at the Shore School, the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, and Sy ...

, had been dancing in Europe with the Jose Greco Company since 1950, Sadlers Wells Ballet and

Ballet Rambert Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

, and from 1952 to 1957 with

London Festival Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Alicia Markova, Dame Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin (ballet dancer), Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham ...

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

and

Sara Neil Sara Louise Neil (born 2 September 1960) is a Canadian retired road bicycle racer, who won the bronze medal in the women's individual road race at the 1987 Pan American Games. A resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, she represented Canada at ...

. In 1962 Jon Trimmer returned to the company after studying at the

Royal Ballet School The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...

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 The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the Creative New Zealand, arts, Culture of New Zealand, culture, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, built heritage, Sport Ne ...

) since 1998. In 1980 ''The Nutcracker'' was performed choreographed by

Patricia Rianne Patricia Elizabeth Rianne (born 1943) is a retired New Zealand ballet dancer and choreographer. Biography Rianne was born and raised in Palmerston North. She danced with the New Zealand Ballet and then in 1962 won a New Zealand government scho ...

and popular despite being described as being 'staged on a shoestring'. In 1984 Her Majesty, Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

Queen of New Zealand The monarchy of New Zealand is the constitutional system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of New Zealand. The current monarch is King Charles III, who has reigned since 8 September 2022. The T ...

granted the title ''Royal'' to the company making it the fourth ballet company to receive this honour, along with

The Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

Birmingham Royal Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the five major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Founded as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the co ...

and

Royal Winnipeg Ballet The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America. History It was founded in 1939 as the "Winnipeg Ballet Club" by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally (who also fou ...

. A production drawing from

Māori culture Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Polynesians, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of Culture of New ...

toured to China in 1985. This work was called ''Moko'', and was choreographed by

Gaylene Sciascia Gaylene Ann Sciascia (born 3 September 1948) is a New Zealand choreographer and dance educator. Sciascia was born Gaylene Ann Wilson in Auckland on 3 September 1948. She graduated from the University of Utah with a Master of Fine Arts. In 197 ...

and designed by

Sandy Adsett Raymond Henry "Sandy" Adsett (born 27 August 1939) is a New Zealand visual artist and educator. He is acknowledged for championing the art of kōwhaiwhai painting, creating a context for the artform within the development of contemporary Māor ...

. The 2000 programme included ''Dracula'' that was marketed with the slogan, ‘Go to the Bloody Ballet’ 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 Split Enz were a New Zealand band formed in 1972. Regarded as the first New Zealand band to gain significant recognition outside of Australasia, they were initially noted for their progressive rock, progressive/art rock sound, flamboyant visua ...

with costumes design by Tracy Grant Lord. In 2006 the company had 32 dancers, and in 2016 had 36. It performed nationally and overseas.

Current

In 2011,

Ethan Stiefel Ethan Stiefel (born February 13, 1973) 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 ...

(USA) became Artistic Director, and brought his partner, American Ballet Theatre principal dancer

Gillian Murphy Gillian Murphy ( ; born April 11, 1979) is a British-born American ballet dancer who is a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Early life and education Raised in Florence, South Carolina, Murphy was a member of Columbia City Balle ...

, as a guest dancer and coach to the company during his tenure. In November 2014

Francesco Ventriglia Francesco Ventriglia (born 9 June 1978) is an Italian ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director. He is currently the Artistic Director of Alberta Ballet. In 2010 he was appointed as Europe's youngest artistic director by the Florence ...

(Italy) became Artistic Director. In June 2017 he was replaced by Patricia Barker (USA). Lester McGrath is the Executive Director. 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. 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. 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 Dawn Jane Sanders is a New Zealand theatre scholar, and the founder and current CEO of the Shakespeare's Globe Centre New Zealand. She received the 2006 Sam Wanamaker Award for her foundation of this centre. In the 1992 New Year Honours (New ...

, Gray Veredon, Patricia Rianne, Nick Carroll and Anne Rowse are critical of processes and some suggesting a quota of New Zealand dancers. In more recent years The Royal New Zealand Ballet commissioned two original ballets, ''

Hansel & Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch ...

'' and ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

'' in 2019 and 2022 respectively. The music for both productions was composed by Claire Cowan, while the choreography was created by Loughlan Prior.

Programme

Choreographers in residence listed in 2021 are Loughlan Prior, Shaun James Kelly, Corey Baker and

Sarah Foster-Sproull Sarah Foster-Sproull is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer and senior lecturer in dance studies at the University of Auckland. Early life and education Foster-Sproull was born in Dunedin and attended Otago Girl's High School. She began dan ...

. In 2021 the programme includes Stravinsky's ''The Firebird'' choreographed by Loughlan Prior with Tracy Grant Lord designing.

Some of the dancers

June Kerr June Kerr (née Greenhalgh; 12 June 1932 – 29 October 2018) was an English-born New Zealand ballet dancer who danced for 11 years with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Biography Kerr was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, the youngest of t ...

(1959 - 60) *Abigail Boyle (since 2005) * Adriana Harper (2005–15), subsequently assistant to magician Andre Vegas * Alayna Ng (2007–17) * Ben Conquest (2000 - 2005) * Bronte Kelly * Clytie Campbell (2005–16), in 2017 became Ballet Mistress under Francesco Ventriglia * Harry Skinner (2008–17) * Jacob Chown (2006–17) * Sir Jon Trimmer * Joseph Skelton (since 2011) * Katherine Skelton (née Grange) (since 2010) * Kilian O'Callaghan (1988-1989 Soloist, 1990-1994 Principal Dancer) * Kohei Iwamoto (2010–17), then

Queensland Ballet Queensland Ballet, founded in 1960 by Charles Lisner, is the premier ballet company of Queensland, Australia, and is based in Brisbane. It is one of only three full-time, professional classical ballet companies in Australia. The company has ha ...

as a soloist * Laura Saxon Jones (2013–17) * Loughlan Prior (since 2010) * Lucy Green (2010–16), then Queensland Ballet as a soloist and subsequently Principal Dancer * Maclean Hopper * Madeleine Graham (since 2013) * Mayu Tanigaito (since 2012) *

Nadia Yanowsky Nadia Yanowsky is a Spanish ballet dancer. Early life and family Yanowsky was born in Madrid and raised in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. She is the daughter of Russian ballet dancer Anatol Yanowsky and Spanish ballet dancer C ...

(since 2018) * Paul Mathews (since 2006) * Rory Fairweather-Neylan (2007–2015) * Shaun James Kelly (Since 2014) * Tonia Looker (2008–17), subsequently Queensland Ballet * Yang Liu (since 2010) *Qi Huan (2005-2014) *Ginny Gan (2011-2014)

References

External links