Royal New Zealand Ballet

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is based in Wellington, New Zealand. 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 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, who had been since 1950 dancing in Europe with the Jose Greco Company, Sadlers Wells Ballet and Ballet Rambert, and from 1952–57 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 is 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 performing many character roles over the last 20 years. Russell Kerr succeeded Gnatt as company director from 1962–69.

In the 1960s and 70s the company survived by touring extensively throughout the country and has been directly funded by the New Zealand government since 1998.

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.

In 2006 the company had 32 dancers, and performed nationally and overseas.^[2]

In 2011, Ethan Stiefel became Artistic Director. In November 2014 Francesco Ventriglia became Artistic Director http://www.rnzb.org.nz/news/news/new-ad-and-2015-season/

Dancers

Abigail Boyle^[3]
Adriana Harper
Alayna Ng
Bronte Kelly
Clytie Campbell

Harry Skinner
Jacob Chown
Sir Jon Trimmer
Joseph Skelton
Katherine Grange
Kohei Iwamoto
Loughlan Prior
Lucy Green
Maclean Hopper

Mayu Tanigaito
Paul Mathews
Tonia Looker
Yang Liu

Footnotes

↑ "Gnatt, Poul (1923 - 1995)". Australia Dancing. 29 January 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
↑ "Agencies we fund | Ministry for Culture and Heritage". Mch.govt.nz. 17 November 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
↑ Cupcakes & Conversation with Abi Boyle. Ballet NEWS, Wednesday, 27 April 2011

External links

Official website
Ballet.co Magazine Article on the company

Ballet companies

Africa	Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cape Town City Ballet

Asia	Ballet Manila Ballet Philippines Guangzhou Ballet Hong Kong Ballet Iranian National Ballet Company Israel Ballet K-ballet Korea National Ballet National Ballet of China Philippine Ballet Theatre Shanghai Ballet Company Singapore Dance Theatre State Ballet of Georgia Tokyo Ballet Universal Ballet

Europe	Ballet Cymru Les Ballets Persans Barcelona Ballet Bayerisches Staatsballett Béjart Ballet Berlin State Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Bolshoi Ballet Cork City Ballet Royal Danish Ballet Donetsk Ballet Dutch National Ballet Eifman Ballet English National Ballet Finnish National Ballet Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet Greek National Opera Hamburg Ballet Hungarian National Ballet Kiev Ballet La Scala Theatre Ballet Mariinsky Ballet Mikhailovsky Theatre Ballet National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Moldova The Monte-Carlo Ballet National Opera and Ballet of Bulgaria Northern Ballet Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Novosibirsk Theatre Ballet Original Ballet Russe Paris Opera Ballet Perm Theatre Ballet Polish National Ballet National Ballet of Portugal The Royal Ballet (London) Rambert Dance Company Russian State Ballet of Siberia Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre Scottish Ballet Spanish National Dance Company Stanislavski Ballet Stuttgart Ballet Royal Swedish Ballet Théâtre du Silence Turkish State Opera and Ballet

North America	American Ballet Theatre Anaheim Ballet Atlanta Ballet Ballet BC Ballet Des Moines Ballet Magnificat! Boston Ballet Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Carolina Ballet Cleveland Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cuban National Ballet Dayton Ballet Houston Ballet Joffrey Ballet Los Angeles Ballet National Ballet of Canada National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Pacific Northwest Ballet Pennsylvania Ballet Pittsburgh Ballet San Francisco Ballet Tulsa Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet

Oceania	The Australian Ballet Queensland Ballet Royal New Zealand Ballet West Australian Ballet

South America	Ballet Municipal de Lima Chilean National Ballet Colon Theater Ballet Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 25, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.

Royal New Zealand Ballet

History

Dancers

See also

Footnotes

External links