18 Jun 2017

The ballet gets a new home

From Standing Room Only, 12:16 pm on 18 June 2017

It's been described as a win-win - the Wellington City Council's multi million dollar investment in Wellington's Te Whaea Dance and Drama studios to accommodate the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company. It's good news for the Capital itself, longer term, with more top quality dance studios available not just to the New Zealand School of Dance but to the community as a whole. The Royal Ballet has to move out of its base for the past 20 years so the historic but earthquake-damaged St James Theatre can be strengthened. Lynn Freeman talks to Frances Turner, Executive Director of the RNZB, and to Garry Trinder, Director of the New Zealand School of Dance, and asks why it's taken so long to find a temporary home for the company: