Nine years ago, Shaun James Kelly was a new dancer with the Royal New Zealand Ballet when choreographer Liam Scarlett cast him in the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Scarlett did something relatively unusual – he cast from throughout the company rather than just choosing the stars for solo roles. He also allowed the dancer to put his own mark on the mischievous character in the Shakespearean ballet.
Scarlett, a world-renowned British dance choreographer, tragically died in 2021, leaving his version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of his legacy. His spirit will live on when the RNZB tours the work as its final show of 2024.
Says Kelly: “The role was an absolute career highlight for me, getting to work with Liam on creating the character and the world that Puck lived in. It is such a magical work, something I’ll remember forever. It’s nice to revisit these ballets when you feel that way.”
Kelly had joined the company in 2014, a year before Scarlett arrived to create the work as a co-production with Queensland Ballet. The whimsical masterpiece was first made into a ballet by the Georgian-American choreographer George Balanchine in 1962 – a version that has been danced by ballet companies around the globe. It was reinterpreted with Scarlett’s witty choreography, detailed characterisations and charming blend of classical ballet with touches of modern dance.
Today it is considered one of the jewels of the RNZB’s repertoire and Kelly, now a ballet principal and resident choreographer, was on stage at the world premiere in Wellington in 2015. The company also took the ballet to Hong Kong.
The Scottish-born dancer studied mime when he went to Copenhagen to dance with the Tivoli Ballet Theatre and one of his great joys is performing, which the role of Puck the fairy allows him to do. “Puck is just running around the forest causing havoc, trying to kiss all the fairies. He’s so nosy with all the humans, he’s peeking in everyone’s tents and he wants to do well, he wants to do everything Oberon tells him to do, but he’s so busy doing everything else he doesn’t listen.”
It’s a technical role with a lot of fast-paced dynamic movement as Puck goes through the forest at lightning speed. “I love to perform and I love to dance. I think it’s so important to tell a story through dance and this is a perfect production for that.’’
In 2021, a reviewer said of his performance: “Shaun James Kelly is the perfect Puck, mercurial and skittish with needle sharp technique. He is a charming creature of the air.’’
Kelly, one of four Pucks, says with a smile, “At the end of a night I’m pretty exhausted.’’ He describes the wonder of Tracy Grant Lord’s set and Kendall Smith’s lighting design as “magical’'. “It’s like a giant playground. Puck has a pod that’s way up high and he sleeps up there among the trees. He swings down in the beginning of the second act. We’ve created this incredible world like you’re in a forest in New Zealand somewhere.’’
On a sunny afternoon in Wellington, the company is in full rehearsal as another Puck – dancer Kihiro Kusukami – lifts his partner Mayu Tanigaito, who is dancing the female lead, the royal fairy queen Titania. Company artistic director Ty Wall-King watches as six fairies – Ema Takahashi, Tessa Karle, Gretchen Steimle, Hannah Thomson, Catarina Estévez-Collins and Niamh O’Meara – dance around in the mock forest in act two.
Calum Gray is rehearsing his role, Lysander, and in a break, the 26-year-old from Northland talks about playing three different roles in three different casts in the production: flitting from Lysander to Bottom and to one of the rustics. It is the Bottom character – a comedic, clown – that is most challenging, when Puck turns his head into that of a donkey. Dancing with a donkey’s head is as difficult as it looks, says Gray – the donkey head has a small gap he can see out of but it leaves him with no peripheral vision so he has to know exactly where he is going as he dances.
“I’ve danced with masks on before but this is another level. It’s a little bit echoey in there and it’s very, very hot. Hopefully, on stage, we make it look effortless, but when we get off the stage we take the head off and you heave a sigh of relief.’’
But it’s an important role: Bottom is a key character, and Titania, the royal, falls in love with him.
Gray emigrated with his family when he was 14 and shifted to Wellington when he was 17 to join the New Zealand School of Dance. He was a dance student when he saw Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream premier in 2015, and was with the RNZB in time to be cast as Lysander in its second season in 2021 – the tour had its wings clipped because of Covid.
The company managed to hold performances only for a restricted audience of 250 in Wellington. “While it was great to perform and be able to get it on stage after all that rehearsing, now we get to tour it around the country, which is even better,” says Gray.
He loves dancing with a partner, and the role of Lysander allows him to shine in this role when he will be performing a pas de deux with Hermia, danced by Ella Chambers and Kirby Selchow. “Lysander and Hermia are young lovers. They’re very much in love and we are showing them as they take tentative steps towards that experience.’’
Gray was a young boy living in Northern Wales when he first watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed by the Northern Ballet. “It definitely connects me to why I dance,” he says.
Ty Wall-King, the artistic director, joined the RNZB a year ago, so he inherited the 2024 programme. Still, he’s a fan of bringing A Midsummer Night’s Dream back to life. About half the cast performed it in 2021 and the rest are fresh, overseen by rehearsal director Clytie Campbell.
Wall-King previously performed with the Australian Ballet, where he danced Oberon, the royal prince, in Frederick Ashton’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was a different, one-act production. “I love this one because it’s ours. It really does feel different when it’s something that is created for your company.’’
Asked if the production has changed since Scarlett premiered it, he says: “It’s slightly different when the choreographer sadly has passed away. You do try to preserve the memory and the artistic integrity of the production from when they were with us. But it does naturally evolve.
“Every dancer who comes into each of those roles brings their own personality and their own individuality and expression.’’
You don’t have to know too much about ballet to enjoy it either. “There’s so much joy and effervescent exuberance and enthusiasm to the story and the way that it plays out that it does just kind of fill your heart.’’
The Royal NZ Ballet tours A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Napier, Rotorua and Auckland from October 24 - December14. For booking details, visit rnzb.org.nz/show/a-midsummer-nights-dream
