VENUS RISING

 

No, this is not an astrological blog; it is a review of VENUS RISING, the latest offering by the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

It features three contemporary ballets that simply celebrate the joy of dance and youth.  No deep messages about the troubling state of our planet, just perfect movement.

The first is AURUM, which features two of the principal dancers, pictured above, Sarah Garbowski, and Paul Matthews.  Paul retired recently after seventeen years with the company, and last night his replacement was the very well qualified British dancer, Damani Campbell Williams.

Choreographed by RNZB alumna, Alice Topp, and created for the Australian Ballet in 2018, Aurum is inspired the kintsugi, the Japanese art of healing cracks in porcelain by filling them with pure, molten gold. The lighting and set design were perfect for this imagery, absolutely brilliant.  The mirror effect was mesmerising, and the streaks of gold just wonderful.

The music was composed by Ludovico Einaudi. It's a name unfamiliar to me, but I find he is very popular, an Italian pianist who experiments with modern musical forms to create his own voice.  The score for this ballet with up there with the best of Philip Glass.  Wonderfully danceable, and the dancers gave their all for it.  Even if there had been just this one ballet, the evening would have been memorable.

The second ballet was THE AUTUMN BALL, which was commissioned by the Wanaka Festival of Colour, and choreographed by Sarah Foster-Sproull.  It premiered there in autumn 2021.  The theme is falling leaves, and the colours that come with the close of summer and the dawning of winter, and again the lighting design -- this time by Daniel Wilson -- was perfectly in sync.  The music was composed by Eden Mulholland, a local (Ngati Uepohatu) and very prolific composer for theatre and dance.

The third offering was WATERBABY BAGATELLES, choreographed by the illustrious Twyla Tharp, and which had its world premiere in April 1994 at the Wang Center, danced by the Boston Ballet. 

Spiced with a great deal of humour (which the dancers very obviously enjoyed) it is a lighthearted play on the fun enjoyed by boys and girls. Apart from being watery, there is no overriding theme, so it really a collection of images of young people having fun.  The music, which appears to have been composed by a whole bevy of names, is an equally moveable feast.  All good stuff, highly enjoyable.

It was a marvellous evening.  Go to the ballet.  You will not regret it.