Royal New Zealand Ballet has asked for an independent review into its employment processes, and how it manages complaints.
Ballet dancers Photo: 123RF
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is also Minister for Arts, asked earlier in the week for a briefing on what is happening at the company as reports emerged that up to 20 of 36 dancers were either leaving, or haven't had their contracts renewed.
Former dancers have also spoken out about concerns over the culture at the company, and that complaints were not taken seriously by its board.
The company issued a statement today, saying it has asked Deputy State Services Commissioner Doug Craig to conduct an independent review.
“The Board wants to assure itself that the processes at the company are robust and meet the standards of best practice,” it said in a statement.
“The review will look at how previous complaints were handled, identify what, if any, further steps could have been taken and recommend what, if any, improvements can be made to ensure that employees can have confidence in the RNZB.”
Board member Isaac Hikaka told Checkpoint with John Campbell that many of the issues were “legacy issues”.
“The board, when these were raised at the time, strove to deal with those issues properly and believed the proper processes were appropriate, robust and best practice. But we recognise given the ongoing interest and issues raised these concerns should be addressed, and so that is why we have commissioned the independent review of the processes adopted.”
Improvements had been made under the new artistic director Patricia Barker, he said.
While 42 percent of dancers were New Zealanders or New Zealand-trained, the company was working to improve New Zealand representation, despite recently hiring two ballet masters from Ms Barker’s United States-based company.
“There is an ongoing goal to bring back dancers from overseas, but also there’s an ongoing goal to increase the uptake, if you will, of dancers trained in New Zealand and New Zealand dancers into the Royal New Zealand Ballet at its first instance.”
It was “standard” practice for dancers to be directed not to talk to media, he said – adding he was speaking on their behalf.
“What we want to do is hear from those dancers and those artistic support persons ourselves, so they can tell us what we want.”
The board said it was undertaking new ways for artists to “have a say in the strategic decisions”.
It expected the review would be completed by March next year.
