2008 Episode 2: Black On Red
Black on Red
"This is about advocating for New Zealand. It's about flying the
New Zealand flag using arts as the vehicle, which I don't think
happens enough," says Amanda Skoog, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's
general manager, of the company's 2007 tour to China. But the story
of that trip, told through Black on Red, is about more than
that.
It's certainly about a small company travelling to the prestigious Shanghai International Arts Festival, following in the footsteps of some of the world's best ballet companies, and offering itself up for inspection by a ballet-savvy audience.
It's also about Sir Jon Trimmer, retracing his footsteps as the only member to have been part of the company's first China tour 23 years ago. It's about goodbyes, as long-time company dancer Craig Lord takes his final curtain call with the company in China. It's about meeting old friends, when the company teams up once again with famed former principal dancer Ou Lu. And it's about current principal dancer Qi Huan dancing professionally for the first time in the country of his birth.
These stories unfold as director Jess Feast follows the company to Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing. Black on Red picks up with the dancers at their final rehearsal, joins the production crew as they pack up and pack out, and the company's management as they attend to the last minute minutia of taking 30-plus people on tour.
"For me Black on Red is about transitions because Cinderella is a story of transitions - from orphan girl to princess. So I wanted to show the documentary's main characters, like Qi Huan and Craig Lord, at significant transitions in their lives. And of course China is undergoing its own transition," Jess Fest says.
The story is told without voiceover, through the words of the dancers and the company management. The camera captures their experiences and impressions of a westernised China; its wealth, its poverty, its shopping, its Communism, its unfamiliar food, and - thankfully - its French delis.
But always Black on Red is about ballet. With the full co-operation of the company, Black on Red goes into the hotel rooms and the dressing rooms, looking into the dancers' lives and from the wings as they perform Cinderella and their Triple Bill, Trinity. And for Chinese-born principal dancer, Qi Huan, we feel his anxiety and excitement as he prepares to dance for his most exacting critics - his parents.
"I really wanted to show the view of ballet audiences don't see - the view from the wings," says Jess Fest. "I wanted to show the contrast between the effortless beauty on-stage, and then the puffing, exhausted human side as the dancers come off. The dancers were so generous in allowing us to see so much of their lives backstage, and trusting us with that part of their story."
"The Royal New Zealand Ballet is such an institution in New Zealand, and is so beloved by New Zealand audiences, that we feel very privileged to be allowed an opportunity to tell this story," says The Gibson Group producer, Alex Clark.
"Black on Red reveals to television audiences the personal
sacrifices these dancers make for their art, and the hard work that
goes into their productions. It also proves that this small and
relatively young company so far from anywhere can foot it on the
world stage."
KEY TALENT
Qi Huan - Principal Dancer
Qi (pronounced She) Huan began dancing in his hometown of
Shengyang, in China's Liaoning Province. He was then accepted into
the Beijing Dance Academy where he later reached the finals of the
prestigious New York International Ballet Competition.
From 2003-2004 he taught at the Beijing Dance Academy alongside
former RNZB Principal Dancer Ou Lu. Since arriving from China in
2005, Qi Huan has performed a number of lead roles including Prince
Charming in Cinderella, the title role in Dracula, the father in
The Nutcracker, both The Sleeping Beauty and Concerto pas de deux,
and Brad in The Wedding.
Qi Huan's journey back to his homeland had a deeply personal significance in that it was the first time he'd danced professionally for his parents, who were in the audience in Beijing.
"Here in Beijing I've got my parents, teachers, friends, even my students, they're coming to see me dance. I hope I can do my best show in China." (Qi Huan)
"I'm trying to forget about who's watching. You dance not only from your body, but also from your heart. If you're nervous, if you feel some pressure, if you think too much, you cannot do a good show. I just need to not be afraid of anything and just be brave. The last few days it's been really [hard]&. My heart has been so heavy because I really want to be good." (Qi Huan)
Craig Lord - Company Dancer (now retired)
Craig Lord has an enviable ability to slip easily between both classical and contemporary repertoire. His career highlights have included Agon, Allegro Brillante, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Banderillero, Milagros and lead roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Carmen, The Wedding, Giselle and Romeo and Juliet.
Rarely one to skip the notice of critics, in 2004, Craig reprised his Romeo for the UK tour of Romeo and Juliet for which he was praised as a "powerful presence". He danced the role of Dracula "to perfection" and A Million Kisses to My Skin with "consummate assurance and musicality".
In Cinderella, he plays the roles of the "scene-stealing" Dancing Master and the Grasshopper. Craig danced with the Royal New Zealand Ballet for 12 years before resigning at the end of the Company's tour to China.
"This is the first time in my life that the next step isn't laid out for me. I come back from China and that's it&.There have been so many lasts, but this is the last, last." (Craig Lord)
"[A dancer's life is] a balance between the exhaustion and the pain level and the reward. And I used to get a real kick about waking up in the morning and being in pain. I used to take real pride in that.." (Craig Lord)
"It's a really amazing thing to - when you meet someone - to say 'I'm a dancer'. I don't know what I'm going to say now - 'I used to be a dancer'? I guess I can say I'm a dancer, I just won't be dancing!" (Craig Lord)
Sir Jon Trimmer KNZM MBE - Leading Artist
No stranger to New Zealand audiences, Sir Jon Trimmer has been a mainstay of the Royal New Zealand Ballet for 51 of the company's 55 years.
Sir Jon started dancing at his sister's ballet school in Wellington at the age of 12. He spent a year with the then New Zealand Ballet, before studying at the Royal Ballet School in 1959. He danced with both the Australian Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. He has performed with Dame Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn and many of the world's top dancers.
Sir Jon is the only member of the company who was in the
inaugural China tour to be returning in the 2007 tour documented in
Black On Red.
Gary Harris - Artistic Director
Charismatic and charming, Gary Harris is a creative force to be
reckoned with. Since his appointment as Artistic Director of the
Royal New Zealand Ballet in September 2001, Harris has set about
turning the company around from their financial difficulties of the
1990s.
With each performance, Harris pushes the dancers' creative
boundaries further, seeking new interpretations of old ballets or
taking on innovative Triple Bills, such as Trinity, which the
Ballet performed in Suzhou.
Harris has held many prestigious positions in the ballet world including working as Associate Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Ballet where he choreographed a cast of 1200 performers for the handover of Macau back to China in 1999.
"It's a real adventure, to take such a big company to a new place. But in order to place ourselves in the world market, we have to tour internationally and be seen by audiences outside our own environment; be compared, critiqued, reviewed, bashed&.It's that thing of seeing [the dancers] grow; when they're faced with a new audience, a new public and just dancing their guts out." (Gary Harris)
Ou Lu - former RNZB principal dancer (now in Beijing)
Once described by a critic as "quite simply one of the finest ballet dancers in the world", the "astonishing" Ou Lu first came to the attention of New Zealand audiences with a guest appearance in the company's season of Romeo and Juliet in 1988.
This world-famous dancer returned to the company full-time and spent 10 years as the principal dancer, commanding many lead roles before finally returning to China in 2003. He is now the Head of Ballet at the Beijing Academy of Dance.
"I have a passion [for] the New Zealand Ballet. It's like my
family and home so I really have a special feeling about the New
Zealand ballet. And it's marvellous and great to see them here and
catch up with old friends. And it's good for them to see the new
China." (Ou Lu)
