Tutus on Tour 2022 received a warm welcome at the Regent Theatre in Dunedin by presenting an eclectic programme that showcased the company’s artistic flare and versatility. The dancers performed works ranging from popular classical ballet showpieces to neo-classical and contemporary ballet repertoire that appealed to the different aesthetic sensibilities of the audience.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet is a great start to the show that eases the audience back into their seats to enjoy an evening of vivacious dancing. Shaun James Kelly’s choreography is eloquently crafted, weaving seamlessly in and out of solos, duets and group ensemble moments giving the piece a sense of complexity. The fast-paced choreography and intricate footwork propels the dancers through space as they glide, jump and turn, while the breathtaking partnering reveals the dancers’ supple strength, sense of abandonment and underscores their athleticism. A landmark in the piece is the moment a dancer walks backwards under a blue spotlight that counters the business of the choreography and in a way becomes a point of reflection revealing the ethos of the work. In this work there are definitely echoes of Paul Taylor’s intention to create dance that is performed with unassuming virtuosity and for the sheer beauty of it.

By contrast the second piece After the Rain by Christopher Wheeldon shifts the mood in the auditorium. The pas de deux between Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Damani Campbell Williams is measured yet captivating. Dancing to the metronome-like sounds of Avro Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel, the performers move through a series of sculptural shapes – awkward at times and gentle at others – low skimming lifts and wistful encounters. The stage is rightfully uncluttered and the attire simple placing emphasis on the hair of Anna Gallardo Lobaina as it drapes over her shoulder. On the whole, the duet is far from the conventional mould that allows for expressions of heightened femininity and a male vulnerability to come through. There is a mastery in Wheeldon’s choreography to engage with minimalism that makes his work compelling, refined and evocative.

It wouldn’t of course be Tutus on Tour if the company did not present exerts from the classical repertoire for the balletgoers. The Waltz of the Pohutukawa from Act II of The Nutcracker – a version created by Val Caniparoli for the RNZB in 2018 – fills the stage with a flow of interweaving patterns and generous use of epaulement. The corps de ballet are dressed in Romantic tutus with red hues that signal the festive season of Christmas with a distinct Aotearoa flavour. In the Grand Pas De Deux, Kate Kadow as the Sugarplum Fairy and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson as Cavalier displays control, precision and a pristine classical ballet technique. It is unfortunate that some glitches in the sound system took away from the crescendo of Tchaikovsky’s music that uplifts the finale of the pas de deux.

It is refreshing to see the pas de trois from Le Corsaire in this programme; a work that encapsulates the essence of 19^th century ballet and is well-known for its pyrotechnics. The dancers do not disappoint, as they showcase the technical prowess and stamina in their respective roles. Kate Kadow as Medora performs fast-paced turns with precision and control and her performance is complemented by Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson’s ability to command the stage as Conrad. Kihiro Kusukami is a charismatic presence on stage and his agility, control and soaring elevation is perfect for the role as Ali.

The evening closes with The Sofa, a playful choreography with surrealistic undertones created by Belgian choreographer Olivier Wevers. The piece revolves around a velvety purple sofa that becomes the epicentre of action for group tableaus, relationship encounters and absent-minded reconciliations. Drawing on the pedestrian with a stylised contemporary aesthetic the piece includes gestural motifs, art deco poses and unconventional partnering where the dancers manoeuvre each other by their foot or their arms, putting each other out of balance. There is a flow of energy that runs through the dancers’ torsos into their limbs that gives plasticity to the movement and builds up momentum to move them onto the space. The dancers look at ease performing the work. The audience is also responsive to the humorous moments of the piece as the dancers’ tip-toe indecisively around the stage carrying the sofa; or at least for the majority of it as the piece lags in energy in the middle. Resolving this and the transition from the pas de deux into the finale would definitely strengthen the work.

Nevertheless, the evening as a whole is enjoyable with great programming that affirms that the company has its roots firmly in the classical tradition but at the same time looks at its best in contemporary works.

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The concept behind Tutus on Tours, of shorter works performed by a reduced group of dancers in smaller centres across the country, from Twizel to Taihape, connects back to the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s earliest years under its founding director Poul Gnatt, when the company toured wherever an audience could be found.  In recent years the concept has been modified to something closer to a conventional gala programme with larger works interspersed with the showpieces associated with such occasions.  The focus of these tours has also shifted to the larger centres of the company’s regular tours, although there are hints that a return to smaller centres may be in the offing in the near future.  The opportunities such tours offer to explore out of the way repertoire and to give dancers performance experience, as well as the benefits of the close contact with audiences that smaller venues provide, amply justify a return to the earlier format.

The current Tutus programme opens with Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath our Feet, originally performed by the company in 2019 and further developed for the current tour. Danced to a Bach violin concerto arranged by former company dancer Massimo Margaria with electronic and percussion overlays, this is a vibrant work that suits the company well.  Five pairs of dancers in colour-coded costumes designed by the choreographer, combine in differing configurations in continuously evolving sequences in response to the energy of the music.  A highlight of the piece is the central slow movement, performed by Sara Garbowski and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson, their stretched limbs evoking the yearning for growth that underpins Kelly’s concept for the work.  The final movement brings the full cast back to the stage, their energy barely contained as they slide across the floor.  It is a pleasure to see this work again and it is to be hoped that more choreographic opportunities will come Kelly’s way soon.

Christopher Wheeldon’s pas de deux, After the Rain, forms the second part of a larger work made for New York City Ballet in 2005. Choreographed to Arvo Pärt’s haunting Spiegle im Spiegel, it quickly became a sought after work for gala programmes.  It is a demanding piece that requires sustained concentration from the performers as it slowly unfolds then doubles back on itself over the course of its ten-minute duration.  Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Damani Williams captured the rapt, almost trance-like, intensity the work requires, as if they were the last couple on earth.  Theirs was a totally assured performance, the high lifts executed with commanding ease, the spell they cast unbroken from beginning to end.  Williams only joined the company in August and is a talent to watch; future partnerships with Lobaina are something to look forward to.

From the otherworldly realm of After the Rain we returned to ballet’s mainstream with the Waltz of the Flowers and the Grand Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker.  Val Caniparoli’s fussy choreography, however, goes against the sweep of Tchaikovsky’s music, which calls for bold lines and large gestures. The pas de deux, performed by Kate Kadow and Joshua Guillemont-Rodgerson, should be the culminating moment of the ballet, but the scrambled, complicated lifts undercut what should have been a triumphant moment.  Simpler moves, executed with confidence and grace, would have made a great impact.

After the interval Kadow and Guillemont-Rodgerson are joined by Kihiro Kusukami in the pas de trois from Le Corsaire, another gala warhorse.  The novelty here is the performance of the original version of a piece that is most often performed as a pas de deux.  Drawn from Petipa’s full-length ballet still performed in Russia but seldom seen in the west, the pas de deux version was made famous in the 1960s in a filmed performance in which the young Rudolf Nureyev partnered Margot Fonteyn with pantherine grace.  Petipa’s challenging choreography for the slave, Ali, held no fears for Kusukami who executed its demanding leaps with aplomb.  As Conrad, Guillemont-Rodgerson has comparatively little to do other than to show off Kadow’s Medora.  Unlike the pas de deux, which allows us to simply revel in bravura dancing and disregard the story, this version throws into relief the more problematic, Orientalist aspects of Le Corsaire’s plot, in which the exotic Ali is completely subservient to the dominant couple of Conrad and Medora.

The final work in the programme is The Sofa, choreographed by Olivier Wevers to Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E flat K. 271.  This masterpiece of the composer’s early maturity is so full of invention it rather cruelly exposes the limitations of Wevers’ imaginative response to the music.  His underlying concept, an exploration of the ways in which the domestic sofa provides the location for a multiplicity of social interactions, lacks focus and the characterisations of the couples and individuals who make up the cast is insufficient to develop clear relationships.  The pairing of Katherine Minor and Calum Gray, initially dressed in faux eighteenth-century costume, references the world in which the music was created but also suggests a link with Jiří Kylián’s celebrated ballet, Petite Mort, also set to a Mozart piano concerto.  The comparison is unfortunate since Wevers’ piece has none of the elegant sophistication or subtle darkness that makes Kylián’s work, performed several years ago by the RNZB, so compelling.  In the second movement the sofa around which so much of the action revolves, becomes a battleground around which Minor and Gray stalk one another, but it is hard to feel any engagement with the participants in their seemingly pointless gyrations.  Eventually the sofa is hoisted into the air where it remains as the work draws to its uneasy close.  Listening to comments as we left the theatre I heard one young woman observe, ‘The last piece was very long’.  Yes, it certainly felt so, although in reality it lasted only about 20 minutes; it is a dubious achievement to have choreographed a ballet to Mozart’s sparkling concerto that seems to drag.  On the evening of November 5^th we might have hoped the performance would have ended with some fireworks; sadly we were left with a damp squib.

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When founder of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Paul Gnatt established his vision for the company in the 1950s, touring to the small centres was a central component of its annual performance schedule. This was to give ballet lovers in remote areas the opportunity to see live performances – no matter how make-shift the theatre – but also to grow the audience for ballet throughout the country.

Sitting mid-week in the Manukau City’s Due Drop Events Centre, I was impressed how Gnatt’s vision still rang true. Filled with all ages – rows of children with parents and grand-parents, all bubbling with excitement – the theatre had a warm, homely atmosphere missing from central city venues. The ballet had come to town.

Patricia Barker’s programme of five works has been enthusiastically received throughout its nationwide tour of 10 centres. The programme challenges with contemporary works but there are enough classical, tutu moments to reassure the more conservative audience members that ballet is still ‘ballet’ – beautiful ballerinas in pointe shoes, sparkly tiaras, frothy dresses and gallant, daring leading men.

Scottish-born Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet, wins the audience over with the fast paced, dazzling neo-classical ensemble work set to Bach’s driving Violin Concerto in G minor. Five couples are sent airborne in a sophisticated architectural choreographic design; geometric angles of legs, arms, and swooping lifts and leaps are clearly delineated on the un-adorned stage.  James Kelly is one of the company’s choreographers in residence, who along with Loughlan Prior and Sarah Foster-Sproull, has been championed by Barker, establishing a much-welcomed choreographic presence in Aotearoa.

In complete contrast the soft, charming After the Rain goes straight to the heart. Created by English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, the second section’s poignant pas de deux is set to Arvo Pärt’s exquisite Spiegel im Spiegel. In simple soft pastel costumes, it is the perfect example of artistry transcending physicality.  Kate Kadow’s delicate expressive dancing hides the demanding mastery of stretches, lifts and gymnastic back bends, wonderfully supported by Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson’s tender strength. It is as if we were witnessing an intimate conversation – one we wished would never end.

Two excerpts from The Nutcracker return the programme to the classical form. To Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous Waltz of the “Pohutukawa” Flowers, the choreography by American Val Caniparoli frees the composition from the traditional hierarchal, ornate original byPetipa and other adaptations.  In billowing tulle of red and white full-length tutus, the ensemble of twelve dancers gives full rein to the music, transporting the stage to a celebration of flowers. As Dew Drop, soloist Kirby Selchow’s joyful flowing style aligned technique and grace to great effect.

No doubt every little girl’s heart in the audience skipped a beat when Mayu Tanigaito made her entrance as the Sugarplum Fairy, supported by her dashing Cavalier Laurynas Vėjalis for the grand pas de deux.  Tanigaito, in a pale lilac tutu and sparkly tiara, is everything a fairy should be – petite, beautiful, engaging – with Vėjalis’s presence emanates aristocratic bearing.  Devoid of all staging, their command and pairing is clearly visible as they master virtuosic choreography with multiple grand jetés, fouettés and pirouettes.

Staying with the classical repertoire, excerpts from Le Corsaire provide another showcase of heart stopping virtuosity favoured in 18^th century ballets. While The Nutcracker is an enduring chocolate box of delights, I am not sure if Le Corsaire would sit well with #MeToo 21^st century audiences.  The ballet is rarely performed in its entirety; its storyline, based on a poem by Lord Byron, romanticizes the abduction of slave girls to a harem, and piracy. Nevertheless, it gives the pas de trois an intriguing edginess. The placement of the two men – Paul Matthews as the lover Conrad proudly commands the stage; Vėjalis as the watchful slave Ali, disarmingly rises and returns to the floor after every sequence – conveying considerable dramatic tension. Tanigaito partners each one with beguiling charm. All excel with the demanding technique of the bravura choreography. Matthews and Vėjalis slice and circle the stage with turns, leaps and jumps. Much to the audience’s delight Tanigaito polishes off the required multiple fouettés (again!) with aplomb; she is truly a magnetic dancer.

The final work, The Sofa by Belgium choreographer Olivier Wevers is a clever juxtaposition between intense emotion and whimsy. One offsets the other. A plush purple couch is a central feature of the work, as is Mozart’s beautiful Piano Concerto in E flat Major. Two central characters appear caught up in a never-ending range of relationship skirmishes. Ana Gallardo Lobaina is the highly-strung partner to her somewhat fallible beau, Guillemot-Rodgerson. Small betrayals send her storming around the stage; her semi-circle crinoline gown in purple silk billowing behind her. Witnessing this tempestuous struggle, a chorus of four couples in skimpy tops and purple shorts occupy the couch, humorously wiggling their legs, flexing their feet this way and that as they jostle for position.  In later sections they leave the couch to offer a counterpoint of romantic stability, in delightful well-crafted vignettes. It is charming, a little long in places, with the outstanding athleticism, technique and charisma of Gallardo Lobaina a highlight of the work.

The RNZB is impressive in its clarity of technique, vigour and artistry, from soloists through to the ensemble. Its ability to deliver creative and compelling works on a small unadorned stage keeps the legacy of Tutus on Tour well and truly alive.

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What dance and what a programme! After the trials and tribulations of Covid ripping through our arts sector, the Royal New Zealand Ballet have bounced back with a vengeance, with this very spectacular and varied programme for their 2022 Tutus on Tour.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet, choreography by Shaun James Kelly, is such a joyous and spectacular opening. Set to Bach, with some subtle changes, arranged by Massimo Margaria, the interesting ‘darker’ shades created in the music gives the work contrasts, from subtle passages to driving energy. The dancers are on fire, gliding and sliding, soaring and diving, in beautiful ensemble patterns, duos and trios. Throughout, body lines are clean and clear, the movement and the music are one. There are gasps from the audience as each combination performs more intricate combinations.  The costumes (Shaun James Kelly) are contrasting subtle colours, light red, yellow, blue, purple, green. They hug and flow with the torso, showing off the amazing strength and grace of these dancers.  Kirby Selchow, Callahan Laird, Mayu Tanigaito, Laurynas Vėjalis, Madeleine Graham, Paul Mathews, Ana Gallardo Lobaina, Matthew Slattery, Georgia Baxter and Dane Head, you are all wonderful!

The Pas De Deux from After the Rain followed and couldn’t have been a greater contrast. Choreographed by the wonderful Christopher Wheeldon and from a larger work, this performance is a gentle, subtle, tender expression of love, friendship, dependency and ‘intertwinedness’. Kate Kadow and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson dance it with such delicacy, in complete harmony with each other. The music, Arvo Pärt’s beautiful ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’, is fully explored and expressed in this piece. The costumes, by Holly Hynes, are simple and complementary to the work.

The third performance in the first half is excerpts from the elegant Nutcracker. With no distractions from the usual busy or ornate scenery, the simple black background allows us to focus on the dance and perfectly shows off the costumes designed by Patricia Barker. The choreography by Val Caniparoli is alive, particularly the beautiful Waltz of the Pohutukawa Flowers, where each of the ensemble dancers shines individually, as well as working perfectly as an ensemble. This is a beautiful piece of ensemble choreography, the highlight being the delightful circle of Pohutukawa flowers. Kirby Selchow is a strong and vivacious Dew Drop. The Sugarplum Fairy, Mayu Tanigaito, and her Cavalier, Laurynas Vėjalis, are beautiful in their restrained elegance.

After an interval, to catch our breath, with the auditorium buzzing with excitement over what we had seen so far, we settle into our seats for the second half offering. Le Corsaire Pas de Trois bursts onto the stage – pure ballet fireworks. Everything about this work sizzles, and the costumes sparkle. This piece, originating with Petipa, is internationally known as a marker of technical prowess. The three dancers meet the mark.  Laurynas Vėjalis, as the servant Ali, is simply superb, with high clear leaps and elevation, as well as tidy and spectacular tours and pirouettes, all performed with a masterful ease. The audience gasps as each of his solos increases in their difficulty. He is complimented beautifully by Mayu Tanigaito as Medora, with her magical fast pirouettes, sustained arabesques and sparkling aplomb. Paul Mathews performs a strong and masterful Conrad, the captain of the pirate ship on the mission to rescue Medora.

The Sofa by Olivier Wevers, to a fast, bouncy Mozart work, is the last work of the evening. A sort of comedy of manners romp, it is quirky and is focused around a sofa. The two pairs are good foils for each other. Madeleine Graham and Shaun James Kelly are playful, quirky and funny, while the second pair – Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson – have a more tangled, strife-filled relationship. Gallardo Lobaina is a joy to watch – dramatic, strong and so flexible. The choreography explores their feisty relationship in interesting ways, including under, over and along the sofa. Ana’s beautiful silky, flowing skirt at the beginning of the work is striking and enhances the choreography and staging. The ensembles’ costumes, again pared back and torso hugging, are elegant. Costume design is by Melissa Leitch and Clare Gardeski, in collaboration with Wevers and Barker. The group, Kirby Selchow, Callahan Laird, Cadence Barrack, Dane Head, Gretchen Steimle and Matthew Slattery, are on and off the sofa. Sometimes they could be watching the TV or the drama of life, flat-mates or at a party, then they leap off and are taken over by their own twists and turns. All their movements are fast, slick, precise and tight. Despite all this I found The Sofa unresolved as a work. Is the “Sofa” the elephant in the room?

This is a beautiful Tutu’s on Tour programme which continues its tour to other North Island venues before heading to the South Island. We wish you all well with this tour. Thank you for coming to Palmerston North, you lifted our hearts.

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Royal New Zealand Ballet’s infamously ambitious Tutus on Tour was, in its heyday, a full six-week biennial tour during which the company divided in half and performed in dozens of towns from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South.

It was the season that acknowledged the company’s pioneering roots when dancers doubled as stage crew and were billeted by generous Kiwi hosts around the country. A certain magic is created when the RNZB performs in small local venues, offering exchange and connection with the audience that is a true reflection of their status as a national company.

Pared back to 10 centres, 2022’s Tutus on Tour has a full programme of five works featuring both classical and contemporary ballet. Opening the show is Choreographer in Residence Shaun James Kelly’s ‘The Ground Beneath Our Feet’ which premiered at RNZB’s Choreographic Series in 2018. As his first work for the main stage the ballet presented Kelly’s choreographic voice clearly from the outset, indulging his preferences for technically demanding partnering, swift neoclassical movement vocabulary, and signature slides en pointe. A manipulated Bach score and variety of transitions ensure the work is well-paced, light-hearted, and lively.

Christopher Wheeldon’s ‘After The Rain Pas de Deux’ (2005) makes its RNZB debut during Tutus on Tour. The final pas de deux is a masterclass in nuance and restraint, Wheeldon making exquisite use of stillness, broken vs. extended line, and motif. Set to Arvo Pärt’s captivating Spiegel im spiegel (Mirror in mirror), the performance holds the audience spellbound. Depth, intimacy and clarity underpin this subtly sophisticated performance by Kate Kadow and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson, facilitated by their highly refined technique and realisation of partnering in the truest sense of the word.

‘Waltz of the Pohutukawa Flowers’ and the ‘Grand Pas de Deux’ – excerpts from RNZB’s ‘The Nutcracker’ (2018) choreographed by Val Caniparoli – has the largest cast of the programme, including a dozen corps de ballet women, Kirby Selchow as Dew Drop, Mayu Tanigaito as Sugarplum Fairy, and Laurynas Vėjalis as Cavalier. With its iconic Tchaikovsky score and traditional format, ‘The Nutcracker’ nevertheless allows Caniparoli to create pleasing geometric formations and some challenging choreographic detail for the soloists. Selchow performs with characteristic joy and panache, and Tanigaito and Vėjalis’ pas de deux work is especially impressive in its opening moments.

‘Le Corsaire Pas de Trois’ is an opportunity to celebrate spectacle and virtuosity courtesy of principal dancers Mayu Tanigaito, Paul Mathews and Laurynas Vėjalis. Best viewed from the stalls to appreciate the magnificent elevation, Le Corsaire is a treat for lovers of classical ballet.

Created for Grand Rapids Ballet in 2013, Olivier Wevers’ contemporary ballet ‘The Sofa’ follows an arc of falling and rising action, the farcical and sometimes superficial first and last movements bookending a richer and more densely choreographed second movement. The ensemble operates as musical staging rather than the Greek chorus they are billed as, which traditionally delivers a single perspective, powering the narrative and articulating a clear point of view.

Soloists Ana Gallardo Lobaina, Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson, and Shaun James Kelly realise their roles with stamina and style, and this season sees a welcome return to the spotlight for Madeleine Graham. Each of The Sofa’s three movements feels longer than the underlying concepts justify, however, the dancers’ performances are impressively sustained with strong commitment to character.

Tutus on Tour is an entertaining and polished programme of works, and with plenty of variety it offers something for everyone.

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Exhilarating, challenging and passionate – this is a programme of five works that all take the stage with confidence.

The opening ballet The Ground Beneath our Feet bursts into life and the dancers clearly relish the intricate complexities of off-centre technique, music and space that choreographer Shaun James Kelly gives them. A neoclassic style is used, set with lovely musicality to Violin Concerto in G minor by J.S Bach and the dancers bring an urgent energy with rapier sharp arabesques and super- slick pointe work, to the mix. Five fabulous couples mix and match and vie for our attention as they constantly push their own boundaries both in terms of risk and recovery. The speed and clarity are excellent. The standard for the evening is set!

After the Rain follows – a poignant contemporary duet choreographed by Christopher Weeldon. Stillness and calm bring us into ourselves as we share the quirks, foibles and journey of a very intimate relationship. At times there is a real sense of shared-ness as they move in response to each other and seemingly as one, but, ever watchful, both dancers and audience sense cracks appear, mollify or dissolve. Every move is nuanced and considered. Every line is a life line. Something bigger than us, something more than the two dancers, Katie Kadow and Joshua Guillemot- Rogerson, is being evoked and it is a privilege to bear witness. As the lights dim, we breath out and silently think of our own relationships with each other and the earth.

It is Tutus on Tour after all and two classical touchstones provide all the prettiness and virtuosity that balletomanes could wish for- A reworked Waltz of the (Pohutukawa) Flowers and Grand Pas de Deux from the Nutcracker swirled across the stage then interval and we returned to another showpiece and touchstone in classical repertoire The Corsaire Pas de Trois. In both the pas de deux we were treated to the superb elegance, artistry and technical excellence of Mayu Tanigaito and Laurynas Vėjalis. Great partnerships are priceless and it is exciting to have watched both these dancers in a number of roles. They have the star quality rapport and virtuosity to deliver all the tricks effortlessly and to really shine. To programme these two pas de deux back to back is brave and to ask the same dancers to perform is foolhardy indeed?  They take the challenge and dance brilliantly. Mayu Tanigaito is exquisite, her mastery of the showstopper fouettés and many a ménage is impeccable. She soars in the many lifts and dives the choreography demands. Her partners, Paul Mathews and Laurynas Vėjalis were strong and commanding, but it is Vėjalis as Ali, who steals the evening. He is an elegant Prince in Nutcracker but steps on stage as a different being as Medora’s partner. The dramatic power of the stage is palpable. I saw and remember the gasps that Nureyev brought to the western stage in this role many years ago in London and memories of this exhilaration are strong for me as Vėjalis embodies the Tartar prince and produces outstanding elevation, tours, sauté de basque and pirouettes. Charisma in abundance. Mayu as Medora is his and they are wonderful together.

Prince Conrad is a difficult role to take with the Pas de Deux woven beside it and Paul Mathews held his ground in the role as Protector well.
The final work on the programme The Sofa choreographed by Oliver Wevers (USA), was a look at our daily lives and relationship with that mundane essential piece of furniture – a sofa. The sofa is part of the dance and the work. set to Mozart, was fun. The dancers played it up and clearly enjoyed the pastiche of responses and silliness – the sofa itself is a star throughout. The athleticism of the dancers dominates with a full wrap skirt providing balance to the Lycra sporty look.

I found myself thinking hard about the order of the programme and am sure this gave Director Patricia Barker a few hours of thought on the way to curtain- up, but these are five works that demand watching and this is a great night at the ballet. The dancers are stunning. They have huge challenges and clearly relish them. There is individual personality on show and a chance for us to know each dancer and their own sense of their place in each work. The audience responded with lots of whoops and applause. Be stunned, amazed, moved and bemused – try to see this show as it tours the country.

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