Royal New Zealand Ballet 2025 Season, Shows, Reviews

byCherilyn J. Lee

January 1, 2020 - Updated on December 16, 2024

Royal New Zealand Ballet

♦ Location: Wellington – New Zealand

♦ Artistic Director: Ty King-Wall

♦ Affiliated School: New Zealand School of Dance

♦ Founded in 1953 by Poul Gnatt

♦ Official Website of Royal New Zealand Ballet

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Royal New Zealand Ballet 2025 Season

With a clear message and focus, Artistic Director Ty King-Wall has announced a Royal New Zealand Ballet 2025 Season that carries on company traditions and embraces innovation.

“We are thrilled to share with you our 2025 season, which will carry us to lands near, far and fantastical.

This season is all about being home and what that means to us here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I’m particularly proud of our commitment to collaboration with dance companies local and international, our commitment to new work, and our commitment to local creatives.

Our programme culminates in a spectacular finale to the year with The Nutcracker, in a new production which I hope combines the familiarity and comfort of a story we know and love, while reminding us of the joy of summers spent at home in our beautiful corner of the world.”

Ty King-Wall, Artistic Director of Royal New Zealand Ballet

As has become annual tradition, Tutus on Tour will bring classical and contemporary ballet to all corners of New Zealand, traveling to seven regions across the country. This year’s program features premieres by former RNZB dancer Annaliese Madonald (Limerence set to music by Schubert) and Stephen Baynes (The Way Alone set to Tchaikovsky) alongside the Gsovsky’s classical Grand Pas Classique and Petipa’s Wedding Pas from the third act of Coppélia.

Following is a double-bill featuring one-act ballets by two of the twenty-first century’s most prominent choreographers – RNZB Resident Choreographer Loughlan Prior’s The Firebird and Ballet Zurich Artistic Director Cathy Marston’s My Brilliant Career.

The end of summer 2025 will see a mixed repertory program, Home, Land and Sea, featuring Moss Te Ururangi Patterson’s title piece, a co-production with The New Zealand Dance Company set to a blend of traditional Māori instruments and modern sounds. Shaun James Kelly, a RNZB Choreographer in Residence will create his first main stage work for the company, Chrysalis, to music by Philip Glass. Stephen Baynes’ The Way Alone, set to Tchaikovsky, rounds out the program.

Closing the year is King-Walls world premiere production of The Nutcracker which promises to add “a distinctly New Zealand touch” to this holiday favorite. Costumes and sets will be designed by Tracy Grant Lord while lighting and visual effects will be created by Jon Buswell and POW Studios, respectively.

Source: Royal New Zealand Ballet