© John Ross Garry Harris interview (May 2003) RNZB 'Romeo and Juliet' reviews recent RNZB reviews more Bruce Marriott reviews

This article is an extended version of a piece originally commissioned by The Star in New Zealand and includes an interview with Garry Harris and others involved with the production...

There have been two images of New Zealand to be seen in London this last week. One is Royal New Zealand Ballet's striking Romeo and Juliet in which the lovers are stripped for action and a reminder of a new take on young love and passion if ever there was one. The other has been Shrek the sheep, who I suppose got stripped for action too, though alas with no Juliet in attendance. Old and new New Zealand out and about for all to see.

Although Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) have visited the UK briefly before, this is their first time in London and it's part of an ambitious six-city tour. They are featuring a strong triple bill and the company's new Romeo and Juliet that I was lucky enough to see when it opened in Wellington last year. "It's time we moved up a league in the international hierarchy" says Sue Paterson, General Manager of the company. "Sue and I have talked about doing an international tour every 2 or 3 years - that would be such a change for us" echoes Gary Harris, the company's Artistic Director and a London lad, back in his home town with the company he's so proud of. And as they both know, the way you move up is to tour London, along with New York a Mecca of the dance world. It's also a place with more dance critics per square inch than anywhere else and those critics are generally more forthright in their style than you will find anywhere else too. OK, so we can be pretty picky and bitchy I'm afraid.

The company actually opened its UK tour a week earlier in sunny Manchester. After 24 hours in a plane they all had swollen joints but nobody was quite prepared for the cold, wet weather. "No probs though", according to Nadine Tyson who dances Nurse and Lady Capulet in the production, and is writing a jovial weblog of the tour at www.ballet.co.uk/weblogs/tyson . "A lot of people are reading it back in New Zealand and I get pestered if I haven't got a new entry up when people look!".
 

Jane Turner as Juliet
© John Ross

The shows in Manchester went fine although many new dancers have joined the company this year and are having to find their way around and through the much-praised set that moves every which way at times. The audiences in choreographer Christopher Hampson's home town were warm and friendly and the company could ease themselves into the production again.

Everybody in the company seemed impressed by Sadler's Wells - a modern theatre with great sight lines. The opening of Romeo and Juliet followed two nights after the Triple Bill (Saltarello, Milagros and FrENZy) and both nights were packed, including no small contingent of Kiwis.

The combination of a new company and familiar choreographers proved a fine draw and the great and the good of UK dance were all around: Sirs, Lords, Dames, Artistic directors plus associated hangers on, designers and a whole gaggle of choreographers and dancers. Everybody was catching up with everybody, it seemed, and great to see Romeo's designer, Tracy Grant, over together with John Rayment who did the lighting. A beaming Matz Skoog, the previous RNZB director, was much in evidence - he had a great time running the company, one senses. In short it was the great foyer buzz you get when new companies are in town and everybody wants to see them. After the show there was a reception and some well-judged speeches that did not go on too long. Garry Harris did the final words before we got a song and Haka. We should have seen it coming but didn't and were charmed the more.

So what did we make of the London premiere? Well I loved it out in New Zealand and still think it's a terrific production, full of real life, pace, vitality and emotion. Act 1 was a little tentative perhaps and I'm not sure the company is so completely convincing in the fight scenes this year - the grunting and barging needs absolute conviction, for example. But the plot gets set, the ball is terrific and Acts 2 and 3 were even more stunning than I remember, to the point where clapping just seemed such a mundane response to being so moved.
 

Jane Turner and Alex Wagner
© John Ross

The ending of Act 2 with the death of Tybalt, throat slit, and the demented agonising of Lady Capulet (Pieter Symonds, stronger than ever) while Juliet looks on aghast, trying to make sense of it all, I think one of the strongest pieces of dance theatre I've ever witnessed. Romeo and Juliet were danced, as at the original premiere, by Jane Turner and Alex Wagner and they delivered wonderfully judged performances, with the pas de deux looking stronger in the choreography and togetherness than I recall last year in Wellington. The set and costume designs look a million dollars of course and seem so right. One striking and inspired example is the huge moon that hangs over the lovers' bedroom scene, later explained by Tracy: "It's just about them and the moon in a way". "Just" - duh!

For Grant, coming to ballet design seems rather like a spiritual home-coming; "I do so love it. I love the visual storytelling - so magnificent - and I love the music. I adore the form and love working with such beauty - I'm completely wide-eyed about it.... so whatever I do is always going to look beautiful too!". Let's hope we see much more of her work in the dance world.

Nadine Tyson, who danced Nurse on the opening night ("delightfully portrayed" said the Sunday Telegraph) and is retiring at the end of the season, expressed the dancers' view at the end of the night "I heard the crowd out there tonight and I heard the crowd on the opening of the triple and they all loved it - loved it, loved it, loved it!"
 

Jane Turner and Alex Wagner
© John Ross

There's been a mixed set of views from the UK critics with one or two not really enjoying the company or Romeo and Juliet at all, but most gave a mix of praise along with some corrections from their perspective. Some snatches of the good and less good comments:

"Christopher Hampson's Romeo and Juliet is a vivid, imaginative account of Prokofiev's score. (The Observer)

"RNZB's well-danced production..." (The Times), "The young company attacked the material with great enthusiasm but the dancers looked ragged and over stretched at times". (Sunday Telegraph)

"Hampson's choreography moves just as fast {as the set} and displays an equally impressive facility in storytelling. (The Guardian). "...a weedy affair... with difficulties and originality ironed out in a juvenile, unambitious way." (The Daily Telegraph).

If you think they are kinder to local companies or others passing through you need to think again.

I often believe the audience gives a more balanced and less rarified view of what's really happening and, thanks to the Internet, their voice is more easily heard now. "Everything about this production was right" was the first sentence from the first UK reader (MargaretL) who wrote on Ballet.co's site about the piece. "A choreographer who finally made sense of it, made the ballet as moving as the music." (JonathanS). And from GrahamW "There has been some tosh written about the dancers' technical deficiencies.. This is a strong national company for which New Zealand should be justifiably proud...". "Congratulations to Christopher Hampson and all the wonderful RNZB dancers and staff. A gorgeous production!" - MandyK.

I caught up with Garry Harris the day after the premiere, "I think they did so well. It's going good and I'm having a ball" is the spontaneous response to my obvious question. A chat with Harris is a refreshing affair, full of sparkle and candour. Although we perhaps think of him as new to directing RNZB, in August he will have been there 3 years, "It's such a weird job - like wearing ten hats. It's perfect for someone like me with ADD which I've probably got."
 

Garry Harris outside of Sadler's Wells
© John Ross

Hats he has many, a former dancer with the London Festival Ballet, there is also Harris the designer (he designed Hampson's Double Concerto for ENB for example), Harris the choreologist/Benesh notator (a select band who understand double, double Dutch I think), Harris the teacher (with the Royal Ballet), Harris the producer (somebody had to tell 1200 performers what to do in the celebrations of Macao rejoining China, and I'm sure I heard about some big shows for Volvo and others), as well as Harris the man who gets Board papers done on time - well so he says. To call him a Jack of all dance trades seems to seriously do him down. Anyway he seems to have found a job that uses it all and he's happy.

With increased state funding Harris is looking to move the company on from touring just the all-important ballet knitting of a full 'big' piece (like Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet), family ballet (like Peter Pan) to include more new work that will give the company its own identity. He's enormously pleased with progress, not least with the first triple bill he's put together "Triple bills are notoriously hard to sell - it went really well and we made budget by the second week of the tour in NZ. Sold out pretty much and that gives me enormous confidence - we've got to do it"

With new eyes and changing repertoire the dancers in the company are changing too and when next season starts about 28 in the 32 strong company will have been recruited under Harris's directorship. That's a lot of change, some planned, some not, but he is comfortable with the new options it gives in creating a company of more consequence. One of the things he's done is to "Turn the gas up - so there is a bit more competition, edge and freshness in the studio". And he sees the results feeding though on stage.

But you can't control it all and he's learned to go with the flow and be philosophical about the reviews the company gets: "It's fine when you get good reviews. Bad ones: well you just have to let it go, don't you. You know that somebody will have not such a good night - possibly justifiably - and you just have to see it as one person's view out of hundreds and hundreds. In New Zealand the critics are positive about the company, which is great to have. They can be savage here (London) but in the bigger picture it's no bad thing".

So what of the bigger picture? "Well it's a sustainable company of good dancers working regularly with 5 or 6 choreographers, young and talented choreographers that learn and grow with the company, so that we have our own voice in the world of dance." Well, welcome to the world, RNZB, you done fine, and I look forward to seeing you all again.