It was a memorable few days for Royal New Zealand Ballet dancers Ana Gallardo Lobaina and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson. 

When they made their debuts as Odette/Odile and Siegfried at the May 2 evening performance of RNZB’s Swan Lake they were both soloists at the time. Not for long though. After the May 4 matinee – their second performance – they were given onstage promotions to principal by RNZB’s artistic director Ty King-Wall. They were the first promotions King-Wall had made since starting in the job in November last year so it was a doubly important moment.

There was more. Within 24 hours, after the scheduled Siegfried had to withdraw due to injury, Gallardo Lobaina and Guillemot-Rodgerson were back on stage in the lead roles. The Sunday matinee was their third Swan Lake in less than 72 hours.

This was the performance I saw, and Gallardo Lobaina and Guillemot-Rodgerson not only stepped up, they were entrancing. They looked wonderful together and created a touchingly intimate story. He was caught up in the fantasy of the moment, she in her inescapable tragedy. 

On the evening of May 4 I was able to see Mayu Tanigaito and Laurynas Véjalis in the leading roles. The late Russell Kerr’s 1996 staging of Swan Lake hadn’t been seen for 11 years so it was new territory for almost everyone on stage. Tanigaito, now a dazzling principal artist and RNZB’s longest-serving dancer (she joined the company in 2012), appeared in the production in 2013 and debuted as Odette/Odile this season. She has phenomenal mastery of the most challenging aspects of the role and gave a thrilling performance with fellow principal Véjalis, an artist of rare refinement. 

Gallardo Lobaina and Guillemot-Rodgerson were poetic, Tanigaito and Véjalis had regal authority. It was good to see their individual approaches throughout.

One of the most exposing moments for all was the White Swan pas de deux, taken by conductor Hamish McKeich at a glacial pace (Kerr, like most choreographers, closely followed Lev Ivanov’s supremely beautiful Act II staging). 

There was certainly a dreamlike quality in which every movement had time to impress itself on the viewer. In some ways the experience was like seeing a jewel held up and turned slowly, the better to reflect light from each facet. The gifts of each ballerina were able to be minutely observed and, it must be said, were worth the close attention. The men partnered with almost superhuman fluidity.

The downside was some diminution of emotional connection at this point. Everything looked exquisite but distant. (McKeich otherwise directed the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in a lyrical, creamy reading of Tchaikovsky’s score.) 

Kerr’s production is conventional and pleasingly modest, which doesn’t mean it looks dull. That’s not going to happen when you have set and costumes designed by the late, great Kristian Fredrikson. And Kerr made a virtue of the relatively small forces available at RNZB – there are currently close to 40 dancers – by concentrating on character rather than spectacle. It suits this extremely attractive company well. 

On the subject of small forces it’s worth noting that after dancing Odette on Saturday night Tanigaito appeared as the Spanish princess on Sunday afternoon. It’s a small part because in Kerr’s production the royals don’t participate in their national dance, but this a company where, clearly, everyone does their bit to get the show on. This included the secondment of students from the New Zealand School of Dance to augment the corps of 16 swans. They looked ready for the profession. At both performances I saw the swans were a beautifully shaped, cohesive group.

Also looking good was former RNZB principal Paul Mathews, who returned to the stage as a powerful presence in the non-dancing role of Siegfried’s confidant Wolfgang. The part was created by RNZB legend Sir Jon Trimmer and previously performed only by him. Trimmer died last year at the age of 84 and the baton has passed gracefully to Mathews. 

Swan Lake tours to Auckland, May 9-12; Napier, May 17-18; Christchurch, May 23-26; Dunedin, May 30; Invercargill, June 2.