Once again the Royal New Zealand Ballet has assembled the perfect tasting platter of contemporary and traditional dance for its Tutus On Tour programme. For the audience at Saturday’s performance at the Isaac Theatre Royal, there was something for everyone.

Excerpts from festive-season favourite The Nutcracker put plenty of tutus on the stage and was a sure-fire winner with the significant number of grandparents and their grandchildren that came along. 

Tchaikovsky’s music and Caniparoli’s choreography for ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ was given a kiwiana twist, courtesy of costume designer Patricia Barker, with the dancers draped in layers of red and white chiffon that referenced the flowers of the pohutukawa, Aotearoa’s own Christmas tree. Against that backdrop, Sara Garbowski shone in her role as Dew Drop.

For the romantics in the audience, the ‘Grand Pas de Deux’ completed the Nutcracker selection, with Kate Kadow (Sugar Plum Fairy) and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson (Cavalier) bringing the perfect level of chasteness and innocence to their fairytale roles.

In contrast, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain was a bit more worldly, with Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Damani Williams revelling in the languid, post-coital vibe.

Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet was a contemporary salute to the beauty of nature in all its hues, with male and female dancers paired in soft pastels. At times all 10 dancers brought the rainbow to the stage; at other times each colour pair had the stage to themselves. Always the choreography captured nature’s gentle fluidity.

After the interval, Kate Kadow, Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson and Kihiro Kusukami brought their all to the technical showcase ‘Pas de Trois’ from Petipa’s Le Corsaire. This is essentially a dance battle, with each in turn trying to extract a louder peel of applause from the audience for their virtuosity and explosive energy as they pirouetted and jetéd across the stage.

Olivier Wevers’ The Sofa completed the evening’s programme. This was truly a delight, bringing ripples of laughter from the audience for its cheekiness and inventiveness. Just how many ways can 10 dancers interact with a purple velvet sofa? At times there were six seated or splayed across the piece of furniture, acting as a Greek chorus to the dance action in front of them.

Six on a couch? Surely a Friends reference? The sofa was anything but immobile, being carried and carouselled around the stage, ending up suspended above it on ropes as the dancers circled beneath it. Wonderfully inexplicable and comedic, it was the perfect ending to a night of confection from our much-beloved national ballet company.

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