Review – Home, Land and Sea – Royal New Zealand Ballet with The New Zealand Dance Company

Review – Home, Land and Sea – Royal New Zealand Ballet with The New Zealand Dance Company

St James Theatre
Wellington
24 July 2025

Choreography: Stephen Baynes, Shaun James Kelly, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Philip Glass, Shayne P. Carter
Set Design: Jon Buswell (Home, Land and Sea)
Costume Design: Stephen Baynes with RNZB Costume Department, Rory William Docherty, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson with RNZB Costume Department
Lighting Design: Jon Buswell, Daniel Wilson

Reviewed by Brigitte Knight

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2025 winter season Home, Land and Sea presents a triple bill of two neoclassical ballets and one contemporary dance created alongside The New Zealand Dance Company. The Way Alone by Australian choreographer Stephen Baynes, Chrysalis by RNZB Soloist and Choreographer in Residence Shaun James Kelly, and Home, Land and Sea (from which the season draws its title) by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson create a calm and enjoyable programme of dance, celebrating some contrasting techniques. With Home, Land and Sea Artistic directors Ty King-Wall and Moss Te Ururangi Patterson seek to foster collaboration, shared vision, and creativity between these two preeminent companies, moving forwards with the intention of unity at the project’s heart.

Opening the performance Stephen Baynes’ 2008 work The Way Alone was originally commissioned for a Tchaikovsky programme at the Hong Kong Ballet, and premiered in New Zealand during RNZB’s Tutus on Tour season earlier this year. The Way Alone presents the choreographer’s personal response to some of the great composer’s lesser-known music, and the abstracted idea of a group of people navigating their life journeys alone. A tranquil and harmonious neoclassical ballet bookended by contemplative choral selections, Bayne’s soft thematic content connects the dancers in expression and energy while allowing the audience to relax into enjoying the beauty of the classical form. Appealing movement motifs include smooth and controlled partnering, effortless extension of the limbs and back, and explorations of lifts with varying numbers of dancers. Costumed in cool, silvery tones, and lit with exquisite sophistication by Jon Buswell, The Way Alone flatters the technical control of the dancers, with Kihiro Kusukami and Tessa Karle particularly appealing and finessed.

Following the first interval, Shaun James Kelly’s first RNZB commission for the main stage Chrysalis celebrates its world premiere on the opening night of the triple bill season. Since being appointed as a Choreographer in Residence in 2018, he has developed his aesthetic perspective through works for Tutus on Tour, children’s ballets, and in-house choreographic projects. Kelly describes his style as “based in the classical world, bringing it into today; more extended and extreme - new age classical ballet”. Chrysalis has a clear conceptual arc, exploring layers in both literal and figurative ways, drawing on relationships, chance encounters, metamorphosis, and becoming the person you were always meant to be. Set to composer Philip Glass’ emotively rich Metamorphosis I - V (movements of which are inspired by Franz Kafka’s 1915 The Metamorphosis, the novella about a man who inexplicably awakes transformed into a monstrous insect), Chrysalis finds the fine balance between substance and meaning, and space for audience interpretation and personal response. Kelly worked closely with designer Rory William Docherty on costumes which metamorphosize superbly as set elements for Chrysalis, resulting in a resplendently colourful collection of shape and texture throughout the work. Cohesive costume palettes and mid-century silhouettes are juxtaposed with heavily-coloured late-1970s unitards, sheer slips, and the occasionally incongruous translucent fedora. Kelly’s choreographic signatures include rigorous and challenging partnering, swift dynamic changes, and exploring classical movement vocabulary through a modern lens. Among a strong cast of ten dancers, the pairing and unison/canon contrasts of Kirby Selchow and Jemima Scott are engaging and attractive, and Chrysalis is an audience favourite.

CEO and Artistic Director of The New Zealand Dance Company Moss Te Ururangi Patterson’s (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) Home, Land and Sea follows the second interval, and is the largest work of the programme at 40 minutes. For the first time the Royal New Zealand Ballet appears alongside dancers of The New Zealand Dance Company in Home, Land and Sea, which is the choreographer’s third commission for the national ballet company. Building on and reshaping movement material and concepts from recent collaboration with Chamber Music New Zealand 100 Winds Taupō Hau Rau, Patterson engages a dark neutral palette, bisecting lighting effects, haze, and projections. Per the title, the work has three movements, although monochromatic costume and lighting blurs their edges; by the end of the performance things begin to feel mesmeric - perhaps an opportunity for an injection of colour or change?” Familiar movement vocabularies fuse tasked contemporary dance and kapa haka, as the choreographer continues to deeply and rigorously explore facets of his body of work’s thematic content. Home, Land and Sea is set to a punchy score by award-winning New Zealand composer Shayne P Carter (Ngāti Tūwharetoa); the interplay between music and movement a real strength of both the dancers’ skill, and Patterson’s direction. With RNZB dancers in contemporary socks and NZDC dancers in bare feet, the work leans almost exclusively into contemporary, including sections of flocking (dance follow-the-leader), repetition, sharp edged attack, and deeply grounded weighting. By opting not to rely on the nuanced classical skillset of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s dancers, the work could easily be restaged as effectively on contemporary dancers in the future. Recent New Zealand School of Dance graduate Anya Down is a powerhouse in this material, alongside ‘Isope ‘Akau’ola, Kirby Selchow, Ana Gallardo Lobaina, and Luke Cooper. Home, Land and Sea further clarifies Patterson’s choreographic voice and is warmly received by the audience.

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Home, Land and Sea season is perhaps light on classical ballet for the more traditional fans, however, variety within the curated neoclassical ballet and contemporary dance programme will ensure audience members connect most strongly with their personal favourite of the three different choreographic approaches and aesthetics within the works.