The RNZB’s Hansel & Gretel is back for an end of year sweet treat. This was my first ever bal­let when I moved to Wel­ling­ton, and it was an utter delight to get a chance to check it out again for this year’s iter­a­tion.

Chore­graphed and com­posed by my favour­ite RNZB duo, Lough­lan Pri­or and Claire Cow­an, this 1920s-film-inspired bal­let com­bines glor­i­ous cos­tumes, won­der­ful bold cho­reo­graphy and incred­ible dances to cre­ate a work that is truly very spe­cial.

Hansel (Shaun James Kelly) and Gretel (Kirby Selchow) live in a world that isn’t kind to them, though the love they have for each oth­er, and their par­ents (Sara Gar­bow­ski & Dam­ani Camp­bell Wil­li­ams) is all encom­passing.

After an argu­ment at the din­ner table, Hansel and Gretel run off into the woods and are lost to a world of strange birds (the RNZB’s child cast), ghosts and boo­gie men. Guided out of the dark­ness by the Dew Fair­ies (Mayu Tani­gaito & Kihiro Kusukami + ensemble) and the Sand­man (Shae Ber­ney), they find them­selves at a mys­ter­i­ous ginger­bread house and wel­comed into a won­der­fully pink tableau with the Ice Cream Witch (Ana Gal­lardo Lob­aina).

How­ever! To their hor­ror, the witch has more devi­ous plans than she lets on, and in her trans­formed form (Joshua Guille­mot-Rodger­son) tries to eat the chil­dren – though they nar­rowly escape in the end.

Pri­or’s fant­ast­ic cho­reo­graphy shines through in this work. From the Bal­anchine-like long lines of the 1920s world where the chil­dren grow up, through jagged hor­ror dance in the forest, to can-can, polka and even some lash­ings of cab­aret and pop dance in the ginger­bread house, these diverse dance strands meld togeth­er won­der­fully, and are an utter delight to exper­i­ence.

Cow­an’s score is rich and equally as spell­bind­ing. The main theme of the work inspires thoughts of stone castles and magic­al spells and the brass-laden num­bers in the ginger­bread house espe­cially invoke this joy­ful whim­sic­al feel­ing that is dev­ast­at­ingly catchy. It is an excel­lent score and you should buy it here.

Hansel & Gretel is a won­der­ful show, and one you should catch to get you into the fest­iv­al spir­it. Don’t miss out!