New works and new dancers at the Royal New Zealand Ballet – onstage in Wellington this Friday

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is counting down to the premiere of the Choreographic Series in Wellington on 1 March. Three performances in Wellington (1 – 2 March) and three in Christchurch (8 – 9 March) will give dance lovers the opportunity to experience four fresh new commissions, tailor-made for the many talents of the RNZB, and also to see the full company onstage, including new company members and apprentices.

The Choreographic Series will be the first New Zealand outing for Allister Madin, previously a Soloist with Paris Opéra Ballet. Allister joins the RNZB as a Principal, alongside long-serving company dancers Abigail Boyle, Paul Mathews, Mayu Tanigaito and Alexandre Ferreira and 2018 recruits Nadia Yanowsky and Katharine Precourt.

Allister appears in two very different new creations in the Choreographic Series: Moss Patterson’s Hine, and Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet, both of which will premiere on Friday night.

The RNZB’s line-up of 38 dancers includes 2019 Todd Scholar Teagan Tank, and five apprentices, three trained at the New Zealand School of Dance and two at The Australian Ballet School. Teagan and apprentices Cadence Barrack, Calum Gray, Ella Chambers, Vincent Fraola and Joaquin Thomas-Mourad will all feature in the Choreographic Series, including in Artemis Rising, in which choreographer Sarah Foster-Sproull celebrates retiring Principal Abigail Boyle, supported by an ensemble of the company’s future stars.

Learn more about all the dancers here,with updated biographies and photographs for all company members. Casting for performances in the Choreographic Series is now published here.

The RNZB would like to thank photographer Stephen A’Courtfor his artistry and our partners Partridge Jewellersfor the added sparkle, PW Dance and Sportswearfor the stylish tanks for our male dancers and M.A.Cartists Ashleigh McPartland and Grace Howarth for helping everyone to look their very best!