The Royal New Zealand Ballet is reviving Greg Horsman's The Sleeping Beauty this spring, a production last seen on home stages 15 years ago. The two-month national tour runs from October 29 to December 20, landing in Auckland from December 3 to 12 — and behind the tutus lies a story worth knowing before you book.
Horsman choreographed the show for RNZB in 2011, with sets and costumes dreamed up by Gary Harris, a former RNZB artistic director who now works internationally. When Horsman moved to Queensland Ballet in 2012, the production crossed the Tasman and became a hit there too. Everything was made in New Zealand, with some notable help: Wētā Workshop crafted the pussy cat heads, and a wardrobe assistant hand-made hundreds of silk leaves for the nymph costumes.
Bringing the show home meant reworking 510 individual costume pieces — a count that includes everything from layered classical tutus to tights, earrings and headpieces. Head of costume Donna Jefferis explains that construction methods have moved on since 2011. Bodices now get side seams so they can be adjusted for different dancers, and modern stretch fabrics have replaced some originals so unforgiving that dancers literally couldn't pull them on. Even so, refurbishing beats starting over: building costumes for a production this size from scratch would occupy a team of nearly six full-time staff for at least a year.
On tour, the costumes travel in purpose-built wooden boxes with two costume managers and several washing machines in tow. Maintenance is a daily grind of repairs, laundry and pre-show setup, and the team stay in the wings during performances with needles at the ready. The sharpest test comes when the four fairy dancers each get just 30 seconds to swap entire outfits — a manoeuvre rehearsed until it's routine, because it simply can't fail on the night.
Why should a traveller care? Because this is a rare second run for a homegrown production with serious craft pedigree, touring multiple centres over the summer season. It's an easy anchor for an evening out whether you're in Auckland or a smaller city on the route, and the storybook sets — with their Wētā-made touches — give even casual ballet-goers plenty to look at. If you're visiting New Zealand between late October and late December, pairing a performance with summer travel plans is a tidy way to spend a night.
There's a bittersweet note behind the scenes, too: RNZB's costume team notes that fewer young people are training in theatrical costume-making, partly because repertory theatres that once served as training grounds are closing. Seeing this production now is also a nod to an endangered craft.
Harris, currently preparing Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling with Scottish Ballet, says the New Zealand production still holds a special place for him. For audiences, the return is a chance to see why.
