Confident future seen in N.Z. Ballet

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 16

Confident future seen in N.Z. Ballet

After four months overseas studying and observing some of the world’s best ballet companies, Pauline Tronson has returned full of confidence in the future of the New Zealand Ballet, in which she is a soloist.

"It is better than many companies of the same size I saw and compares very well with some of the larger ones,” she said during a brief stopover in Christchurch on Monday.

The “new” New Zealand Ballet had strengthened, become more unified and now had more finish through continual performing, she said. One of its mam strengths came from the number of new works specially choreographed to suit the size and talents of the company. NEW WORKS

With gems from the classics and a wide range of new ballets, created by the director (Philip Chatfield), the programmes had enough variety for a very wide public appeal. “This is good,” she said. “Good from the point of view of audiences and for the dancers. And that is one of the reasons I feel so optimistic about the continuing success of our company,” she said.

Among the new works included in the present tour

programme she mentioned were Chatfield’s “Carmen” and a humorous sketch on New Zealand life, "Dadz’adagg.” She is particularly impressed by a new Maoristyle pas de deux, “Tohu Aroha” (“Token of Love”), which Chatfield choreographed with the guidance of two members of the Maori Theatre Trust.

“It is danced to music byChristopher Norton of Wellington, hence it becomes an iail-New Zealand work,” she said.

In the present programme,! which opens at the James Hay Theatre on September 21, Pauline will dance the lead in a divertissement from Act 1 in “Giselle”, one of the cygnets in Act II of “Swan Lake” and also in “Carmen”, which she describes as “rather earthy” and in a completely different style from the other ballets in the repertoire. “Ballet is becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment overseas, among men as well as women,” she said. “And I am most heartened to see more men in New Zealand audiences now — even if they do go under protest with their wives or girlfriends for the first time. Once they have seen a programme which includes new ballets, as well as the classics, most of them will be keen to go again.” And she is very glad to

report that the New Zealand Ballet now has four male dancers.

“But we still need more. I would like to see the company expand to about 25 to 30 dancers, including eight or 10 boys, but it is a matter of finance at the present time.” CAREER Auckland-born Pauline Tronson joined the New Zealand Ballet in 1969 and went to Japan with the company I for its Expo ’7O presentation. A year later she joined International Ballet Caravan and toured with this group in Scotland, France, and Switzerland. She also attended classes at the London Dance Centre before returning to the New Zealand Ballet for its 1972 tour. When she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council bursary last year, she decided to study mainly by observing top companies at work in the United States, Britain, Europe and Russia. “Having been a dancer for seven years, I wanted to get a fresh look at my own profession by sitting out front observing performances, watching rehearsals and taking classes with many different ballet masters,” she said. “I wanted to compare their different styles and methods of teaching. My whole overseas tour helped me tremendously as a dancer in many, many ways.”

Of all the teaching she saw, the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet

schools in Russia gave the most thorough and intensive training, she found. The facilities at the Bolshoi Ballet School she rated the best in the world. “Unbeatable”

Pauline has never lost her excitement that began in childhood, in watching ballet.

It was sheer joy for her to see Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, defectors from the Kirov Ballet, and the Japanese ballerina, Yoko Morishita, dance in New York; to watch Nureyev with the London Festival Ballet and the popular Lyn Seymour with the Royal Ballet in London. She still regards Dame Margot Fonteyn as “quite un. beatable” as an artist. Pauline Tronson is glad to be back with the New Zealand Ballet. “I am sure my future is here,” she said. She hopes some of the New Zealand dancers in overseas ballet will return to the national company now that it has stabilised. Sharon Vanesse, who has been with the Munich Ballet Company, has already “Come home” and is with the New Zealand Ballet on its present tour. “I know there are others who would like to come back. And they should return, if only as guest artists, to show the benefits of their experie tees,” Pauline Tronson said.