For the first time in fifty years, the Scot­tish Bal­let vis­its Aotearoa for a dream col­lab­o­ra­tion. This Fri­day and Sat­ur­day in Pōneke only, the RNZB and the Scot­tish Bal­let will share the stage to present four gor­geous works.

Dex­tera (Scot­tish Bal­let) com­mis­sioned to cel­e­brate the Scot­tish Bal­let’s 50th Anniver­sary in 2019, is cre­at­ed by Fran­co-British chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Sophie Laplane. Set to the music of Mozart, Laplane says of the work, “I was loose­ly inspired by the Pyg­malion myth and the idea that once the cre­ation has been made it takes on a life of its own – a bit like chore­og­ra­phy.’”

Per­formed across a giant chess­board, Schachmatt (Check­mate!) (Scot­tish Bal­let) is the work of inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Cayetano Soto and is inspired by the words of Joan Rivers, the films of Pedro Almod­ovar and the chore­og­ra­phy of Bob Fos­se. In con­ver­sa­tion with x, Soto says of the work, “It’s very joy­ful and play­ful and has a sense of humour, but it’s also fast and
tech­ni­cal. As a cre­ator I don’t like to preach a nar­ra­tive to the audience;I hope it can inspire audi­ences and give them the space to reflect on the time we are liv­ing in.”

The RNZB presents two works of its own as a part of this inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Annaliese Macdonald’s Limer­ence, a work for four dancers as per­formed to the work of Franz Schu­bert; and Shaun James Kel­ly’s Pris­mat­ic — a cel­e­bra­tion of the RNZB’s past and present, to a ver­sion of Johannes Brahms’ Vari­a­tions — round out the pro­gramme.

Cel­e­brate these won­der­ful local and inter­na­tion­al works in this very lim­it­ed series of bal­let this week­end at the St James The­atre. Tick­ets are still avail­able here.