They have been charged with bringing to life the personal story of one of New Zealand’s most prominent authors, Katherine Mansfield, in Woman of Words, to be premiered at the Wānaka Festival of Colour next month.
"Everyone is really passionate about doing her justice. She is such a enigmatic figure, so beloved, we want to do her justice," choreographer Loughlan Prior says.
Kirby Selchow, who dances the role of Katherine, agrees.
"It’s an honour. It’s a big responsibility to portray a real human."
For Prior — well known for his new takes on the fairy tales Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella — and many of the dancers, it is their first time creating and performing a ballet about a real person instead of the fairy tale or fantasy characters of their usual work.
"This is very much a portrayal of an icon’s life. We have taken some adaptive liberties — it is very much a theatrical representation of her life. To squeeze her entire lifetime into a 45-minute show is no mean feat."
Co-commissioned by the festival to make the work, it began with a 10-minute experiment of ideas in 2021 and developed from there into a one-act ballet.
From there Prior has taken a deep dive into the world of Mansfield, reading her works, watching documentaries about her life, all with the support of Katherine Mansfield House and Garden. In particular Woman in Love, Katherine Mansfield’s Love letters featuring letters to lovers but also family, friends and fellow creatives including Virginia Woolf, struck a nerve.
"For the ballet we are really wanting to portray her as this kind of incredible free spirit who was ahead of her time. It’s less about the actual short stories that she wrote."
Instead it is more about the "tumultuous" and major occurrences in her short life — she died in 1923, aged 34 — and how those events found their way into her literary world.
"She lived five lifetimes in that time and did so much. It is one of the more challenging projects I’ve taken on."
Those challenges come from it being biographical and because ballet is traditionally a non-verbal creative endeavour.
"Doing that about a writer is quite tricky."
So Prior has enlisted an actress and sound studio to generate a "sonic world" to evoke not only the period in time she lived in — lots of different sounds from the turn of the century — but also to tell her story, such as the dance hall music of 1910 when she was attending underground clubs and the sounds of high society and the Bloomsbury Group.
"There are lots of different references, so people will hopefully feel they are in the era that she lived. It has given such a rich texture to the sound track and therefore what we are creating with the dancers."
Mansfield’s letters are narrated by the actress and will play as the dancers perform.
"It’s using the quality and phonetics in the text and voice to generate movement and tell the narrative through that. That has been very rewarding."
It is very different from what Prior usually does in his practice which is working with orchestral music.
"It’s bringing a whole new storytelling aspect to the world of Katherine Mansfield."
Of particular interest to Prior is Mansfield’s bisexuality. He has "plucked out" some of her most meaningful relationships to depict — one with a female and one with a male.
"It means I can explore different gendered partner work which is really challenging and exciting. It’s somewhat of a follow-on from the work I did in Cinderella with the two queer princes. It’s an area I’m very, very passionate about and interested in."
While Cinderella featured a romantic pas de deux between two male dancers, this will feature one between two females.
"In this particular dance we are using the point shoe and how we tell a story with a point shoe and two women dancing together and falling in love."
Stylistically it goes from being a bit "folky" in New Zealand all the way through to the pre-1920’s dance hall "jazzy stuff", he says.
"She lived a very eclectic life and it’s been very much reflected in all the different choreographic styles and there is a lot of acting as well."
That makes it an incredibly challenging role for Selchow. The first week of rehearsals have been a mental and physical roller coaster for the dancer who has worked with the Royal New Zealand Ballet for nearly 10 years as she has come to grips with the relationships Mansfield formed.
"Her life was also a roller-coaster ride, she is a fascinating woman. I’m still learning about her as I go. She is so well known in New Zealand — she left a big mark here.
"I want to portray her the best I can, how she was back then."
Selchow’s research — like Prior she has been reading her books and watching the documentaries — has shown Mansfield to be a very forward-thinking woman to have been born in the 1880s.
"I think if she lived in today’s society she’d fit in much more than she did back then."
She is looking forward to the duet with fellow RNZB principal dancer Mayu Tanigaito, who plays Maata Mahupuki who was also known as Martha Asher.
The duet is something she has not performed before with a female dancer.
"It’s been amazing for myself and Mayu working together, partnering each other physically, having that closeness. There is something really beautiful about working with Mayu. I guess because women are so affectionate themselves, we really feed off each others’ emotions and feelings."
While the piece might only be 45 minutes long, there is a lot of content for the dancers to learn as they follow the highs and lows of Mansfield’s short life, she says.
"There is a lot for me. I don’t leave the stage for the whole 45 minutes. I’m the one person on the stage for the whole time."
The large acting component means Selchow almost feels like an actress taking on a big role.
"I get quite emotional at the end of a day."
She is enjoying working with Prior on the creation process acknowledging how special it is for her to have him make work on her. He previously created Gretel in Hansel and Gretel for her.
"Loughlan has created a lot of work on me. I’m honoured to get the role and go through this process with him. He knows me really well. I’m very lucky to have him as a choreographer who likes working with me."
RNZB principal dancer Sara Garbowski plays Annie, Mansfield’s mother, and throughout the piece helps "embody Katherine’s writing", becoming her thoughts and words. Garbowski and her fellow dancers flip back and forwards between being a character to help move the story along and also support what Mansfield is writing.
"It’s quite incredible to see how he’s taken so much of her letters and stories and relationships that he’s able to do that and not have a lot of confusion. It is quite impressive."
It is challenging work for the dancers as they are performing to text rather than the usual ballet counts.
"You have to be so much more precise. It’s a very interesting project."
Like her fellow dancers, she has been researching Mansfield’s life and work as well as her mother’s.
"They were from a more well-to-do family at that time. Katherine responds in her body language to her mother. It is interesting to hear the descriptions of how New Zealand looked in the 1900s."
It is the first time she too has performed a story such as Mansfield’s where there is so much to tell.
"The movement is quite abstract in a way but it is still describing words so it is creating movement that still has the choppy rigid text but still embodies the emotion she is writing in. There are a tonne of small little steps which create big sequences. The share angles we create with our bodies are quite different from ballet."
For the group of dancers performing the movements it requires intricate and exacting time, especially the group piece.
"Everyone has a lot to remember. It’s very good for the brain. You need a tonne of concentration, to be in the zone to remember the steps and sequences so it all flows together."
As they workshopped the group piece a few years ago, it is more familiar to many of the dancers but it still takes "a lot of brain power" to remember, Garbowski says.
The main prop will be Mansfield’s writing desk, which has become a character in the work.
"It transforms into whatever is needed to describe a story — they go to hot pools so we use it as a tub."
From Canada originally, Garbowski, who played Ada in RNZB’s production of The Piano, says having explored a lot of New Zealand, when Covid restrictions allowed it, helped when it came to pieces like this.
"I did a trip to Hanmer Springs, where I saw old photos of the hot pools, so I can try and picture what it was like when she went on her trip."
She still finds it amazing how Mansfield went to Europe, came back to New Zealand and then returned to Europe in the days when it required a long boat trip.
"It wasn’t an aeroplane ride away like it is now. Wow, good on her."
Garbowski hopes people who see the ballet will be curious enough about her to read more about Mansfield’s life and work.
"It creates this awesome image of what her life was potentially like."
TO SEE
Woman of Words, March 27, Lake Wānaka Centre as part of the Wānaka Festival of Colour, March 26-April 2.
