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!