N.Z. Ballet is ‘on its way’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 6

N.Z. Ballet is ‘on its way’

After several years of struggle for survival, the New Zealand Ballet was on its way to being a workable company both financially and artistically, said Miss Louise McElroy yesterday.

Miss McElroy, w ho has appeared in the company’s recent* television productions and on tour, has been a principal dancer with the ballet for the last two seasons.

"At present, the company is just hanging on artistically through lack of leadership, and it will probably take years of steady progress before real stability is achieved,” she said.

To progress, the company needed firm and knowledgeable artistic and administrative staffs, a good teacher to extend and inspire the dancers, and a good artistic director, she said. The company also needed small productions choreographed to suit the dancers. Compact productions “The New Zealand Ballet should tour continuously with compact productions of a high standard, which the public expects,” she said. “Audiences don’t mind if a programme is not on a grand scale, such as a full-length production of ‘Swan Lake’ or ‘Giselle,’ so long as the works are well done.”

The company needed more well-trained, experienced dancers. It must be able to offer them a good deal, artistically, she added. Born in Auckland, Miss McElroy joined the New Zealand Ballet in 1966, then went to London to continue training. She was a soloist in the Gulbenkian Ballet in Lisbon for a year before returning to New Zealand in 1969, only to find the national company had gone into recess temporarily. "So I joined the Queensland Ballet and did an 8000-mile tour in nine weeks of onenight stands,” she said. “After that, I returned to the New Zealand Ballet and did a tour of the lower part of the North Island, and television performances.” Her television performances, partnered by Jon Trimmer, have included “Pineapple Poll,” and, more recently, “To Make a Pointe.” She is visiting her husband’s parents, Mr and Mrs H. Hawke, in Christchurch, with her infant son, Nicholas. She hopes to rejoin the New Zealand Ballet for its South Island tour in September. Television ballet Miss McElroy said it was too soon to judge if television ballet attracted larger audiences to the theatre. Television was a very different medium from the stage, she said. Ballets needed to be specially choreographed for television if they were to be successful. “Televised ballets are very personal and depend for their effect on angles and closeups,” she said. “Facial expressions are as important as the steps. The New Zealand Ballet needs to concentrate on small productions with from two to three dancers in them and little or no set. Big classical works, such as ‘Swan Lake,’ should be left in the theatre.”

Television was important in New Zealand because it kept the art before the public. But, Miss McElroy said

it should be explained to the viewers what the dancers were doing—even narrated. New audience “Television breeds an entirely different kind of audience for ballet,” she said. “We found on our recent North Island programmes for school children that they were now much more responsive and involved in what was happening, which was the result of seeing ballet on television. And the theatre audiences of the future will come from these children.” Miss McElroy said she returned to New Zealand because she wanted to work in her own country. “There seems to be more point to the effort if you are doing something for your own people, and I knew the New Zealand Ballet needed experienced dancers to survive,” she said. “To me, it is well worth while to grow with the company, and I would like to be part of its progress.” Effects of marriage If Miss McElroy goes on tour with the ballet, her son will be well cared for by his grandparents for the few weeks she is away. Her husband is Mr Keith Hawke, a film producer, with Pacific Films.

How does marriage affect a dancer? “I believe she needs the stability of marriage for maturity and a balanced attitude to life; this is important to her artistic approach,” she said.