Premiere Of New Ballet

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 14

Premiere Of New Ballet

A ballet written specially for the New Zealand Ballet Company by the 24-year-old Parisian dancer, Bernard Hourseau, will have its premiere at the Theatre Royal tonight.

It is called “The Repercussion,” but its choreographer is reluctant to say much about it.

“I don’t want to tell you the story,” Hourseau said yesterday. “I want the audience to find out. Everyone will see something different in it.” A modern ballet, it will be performed without special costume and scenery effects, and the only music will be from percussion instruments.

“A ballet should not be a concert,” says Hourseau. All he would say about the theme was: “It tells of a war between black men and white men over the attempts of the Coloured men to. steal the wives of the whites while they are away hunting.”

Hourseau said he wrote the ballet because he believed the New Zealand Ballet Company needed something new. “New Zealand is a progressive country and its ballet should show something new,” he said. “People don’t believe in fairy tales and Prince Charming any more. It is bet-

ter for the New Zealand Ballet to do something new—especially if it wants to be international.” Hourseau has been in New Zealand for nine months, but plans to leave soon. “I like it here because I have been able to give many performances, but we are not working enough,” said Hourseau. “There is not enough training, and that is why I am leaving in May for Cuba. “I will dance with the principal Cuban ballerina, and then go with the company to

Russia at the end of the year. “With the New Zealand ballet, each dancer can work by himself if he wants to, but it is hard unless ..here is someone behind him, especially when he is young. “Dancing is very hard work and it calls for concentration. It is so easy to slip back.

“I have to learn something every day. That’s why I want to go to Russia. I hope to stay there for a year and study at the Leningrad Schoo) of Ballet.”