Ballet more than prancing on stage

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is presenting a triple bill of new dance works, including a piece by one of its former dancers. Andrew Simmons talks to Tom Fitzsimons about being a perfectionist, dancing in his lounge and how ballet is not just prancing around the stage

When the Royal New Zealand Ballet introduced its new show, From Here to There, in Dunedin last month, the response was extremely warm.

But although the company was presenting two works by acclaimed international choreographers, the crowd saved its most rapturous response for a work by a fresh 24-year-old Kiwi.

Andrew Simmons, a former dancer with the company, was the choreographer of A Song in the Dark. And when the curtain came down on the delicate, shadowy piece, the audience fairly erupted.

"I was really pleased," Simmons says. "Of course, when it's something you've spent so much time with, and you know personally, there are a few things that you're not happy with and could be better.

"But on the whole, I was really pleased with the dancers and the reaction from the audience was really good."

Spoken like a true perfectionist, which is apparently what Simmons gained a reputation as over his six weeks of rehearsing the piece with the company.

"That's a bit of trouble I had, just sort of getting to the opening night. There were a few hair-raising moments when things weren't coming together exactly as I wanted, but as you saw, it was fine on the night."

But he is not apologetic for being exacting.

"You have to be. You have to be really committed to your end product, because after all, it's your name."

His piece is coming to Wellington next week, along with Christopher Hampson's Silhouette, which also had its premiere in Dunedin and riffs on Edgar Degas' famous paintings of ballet dancers.

The triple bill finishes with a reprisal of David Dawson's A Million Kisses to My Skin, an exuberant international hit which the company first performed in 2005.

Simmons did not mean to become a choreographer. After dancing with the company for five years until 2008, he had to change direction when his wife (a fellow dancer) landed a job in Germany.

"It's something I was always interested in, even when I was at ballet school. It just happened a lot, lot earlier than I thought it would.

"I am young, but I'm not upset that I'm not dancing any more."

After creating two smaller works for the ballet's tours to regional centres, his latest piece was easily his biggest so far, he says.

"This was a much bigger opportunity and a huge amount of dancers for me to work with."

His brief was spare: stick to about 25 minutes and don't have too few dancers.

He has kept to it, with a piece that begins and ends in minimalist style, but builds to a kind of cascading crescendo using up to 16 dancers.

The Details
The Royal New Zealand Ballet performs From Here to There from Wednesday to Saturday next week at the St James Theatre.

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