“This treasured gem is a backward glance at a pivotal work. Prismatic serves to emphasize the foundations on which the RNZB’s present achievements are built, while making obvious the artistic distance travelled; that is, the grand jete this Company has executed. The present choreographer, Shaun James Kelly, preserves the hallmarks of the Ballet Company of the 1960s, on the one hand. He highlights the emphasis on pure, fluid classical lines of the arms, flowing extensions, elegant arabesques, traditional geometrical formations, and includes ‘the daring artistic abstraction’ in vivid orange − Raymond Boyce’s arresting backcloth. Extending Prismatic into a longer work for 36 dancers which explores Brahms’ familiar Variations on a Theme by Haydn (opus 56), Kelly seeks to respect the past artistry of Paul Gnatt and Russell Kerr, while embodying recent visual images to revitalize the work.
The backward slides of the ballerina by her partner, the familiar fish dive, the expected ballon in the jumps, these are satisfying. Whirling the ballerina in a circle close to the floor like an ice figure skater, those movements intertwine with imaginative lifts, a wide spectrum of turns and alluring lighting to shift the mood. A surprising tableau of the male dancer running up a hill of dancers’ backs to pose triumphantly, is a breath-holding moment. While Prismatic retains the dated women’s skirted leotard, and although the ballerina’s response to the percussive drum crescendo is synchronized only some of the time, these minor details do not diminish the enthusiastic response to the final tableau; that is, line after line of elegant dancers running onto the stage for the final, impressive bow.”
Reviewed by Mona Williams
