Always a pleasure to find myself at the St James here in Pōneke, and the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s got something for everyone with their trio of short ballets this winter.

Sir Frederick Ashton’s (1904-1988) Birthday Offering is a stellar celebration of classical ballet. First performed in 1956, with seven solo variations for the women in the cast to dance, this 14-person piece is a masterwork of strength and complexity, performed to Alexander Glazunov’s music. Mayu Tanigaito and Laurynas Vejalis are stellar as the centre in the pas-de-deux, but all dancers shine in this spectacular ode to performance history. Dance can be so transient, lost to time, and it feels very special to see a piece by a choreographer that has such import within global dance history.

Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Ultra Folly follows, a bright and contemporary piece featuring four dancers all decked out in colourful skirts. Never has a title been more apt in the delightful chaos that follows; moments set to silence, then freneticism, sass and personality; relationships, each dancer paired with everyone else, that build and change and then fall away again. Foster-Sproull’s choreographic skills truly know when to let a moment breathe, thus building the anticipation, and as such I’ve never found myself giggling so much at a piece of dance before.

The concluder of the programme is Andrea Schermoly’s Stand to Reason. Created in 2018 for the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Aotearoa, this piece is a trenchant reminder of the rights our ancestors fought for, and the importance of continuing to stand for these rights today. Performed solely by women dressed in black, we hear their breaths amongst their powerful dance work, coming together with holds and balances, honoring the power of those who stood for our rights in the past as they hold each other in the present. Sharp golden side lighting highlights every muscle and every step, the strength required for a piece like this.

Staged in front of a projection of the the New Zealand Christian Temperance Union’s Ten reasons why the women of New Zealand should vote, this incredibly moving piece ends on the dancers holding us in their gaze as the projection behind them reads all the countries in the world where women still can’t vote.

A sobering end to a trifecta of ballets, all of which speak to the breadth of dance history both in this country and internationally and the importance of not forgetting it today. A winter delight, get in before the season ends!