When Damen Axtens glides across the stage in Invercargill next week it will be a "full circle" moment, he says.
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s "Tutus On Tour" will be his first professional dance performance in the city where he grew up and decided to become a dancer.
It is also part of his journey to reconnect with New Zealand and his family since he returned from the United Kingdom permanently last year.
Axtens was in the UK when Covid-19 struck and not wanting to spend lockdown alone there came back to New Zealand for the first lockdown to spend it with family. His parents still live in Invercargill.
He returned to the UK and his position with the Birmingham Royal Ballet where he danced for another year before making the tough decision to return home to New Zealand.
While with Birmingham he danced various roles such as Sir Peter Wright’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, along with Goyo Montero’s Chacona and Will Tuckett’s Lazuli Sky.
"Everything in the world was crazy and I wanted to be closer to home. My priorities shifted. I realised I didn’t want to live there anymore".
"I was really lucky to get a job and be able to keep working on my craft. I’m feeling very lucky to be living and working here. It’s the best thing."
Especially as it gives him the opportunity to spend time with his three siblings.
Axtens left home at 13 to move to Melbourne to study ballet.
"It’s like re-meeting old friends. It’s been beautiful to get to know them now. I’m really blessed to be home but I have realised just how much I missed out on."
He has no regrets about the decisions he made to pursue his career as it has got him to where he is today.
"But I definitely wish I had spent more time with my family in my teen years."
Axtens describes his ballet journey as a "windy road" beginning after dancing along as a toddler in the back of his older sister’s dance class.
"I’ve always had a deep connection with music and the way music makes me feel. I’m a bit of a jittery person, I can’t sit still and if music comes on I want to dance."
So his mother gave in to his appeals to learn ballet himself when he was around 4 years old, taking classes in Sydney and then when his family moved to Invercargill with Glenys Scandrett, who now lives in Dunedin.
He started doing ballet competitions when he was about 8 and people started noticing his talent. They suggested to make the most of his abilities overseas training was needed.
At 13 he secured a position with the Australian Ballet School where he studied for two and a-half years.
"I knew exactly what I was doing."
The next step was The Royal Ballet School in London where he studied for three years.
As he got older he realised how hard it must have been for his family to let him go and how big a challenge it was for himself.
"I gave up the idea of a normal upbringing. I moved out of home at 13. It changed the direction of my life but it was necessary to get where I wanted to be. I had to give up the ordinary."
Axtens is loving the opportunity to work with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. So far he has danced in Loughlan Prior’s The Firebird and Paquita along with the roles of Rustics and Puck in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also had the role of Prince Dashing in Prior’s Cinderella.
"That was really fun."
In the "Tutus on Tour" programme, curated by artistic director Patricia Barker, Axtens will perform in RNZB choreographer-in-residence Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet (2019) and Olivier Wevers’ contemporary ballet The Sofa (2013).
While he likes to be versatile, Axtens admits his training from the Royal Ballet School is rooted in classical technique.
"I excel in that but I have an appreciation for contemporary. My body is used to classical."
He really enjoys roles which pair the dramatic with complicated technique and his aim is to get principal roles such as Romeo in the future.
"I’ve got the technique and I really like to use it as I had to work so hard to get it."
His life in New Zealand is worlds apart literally from that of his UK life.
"Everyone says the pace of life in New Zealand is a bit slower but I didn’t realise the truth in that until I moved back. What I used to do in a week in my UK life can happen in a month here — it’s nice."
Axtens is also enjoying living near Oriental Bay which enables him to have a dip in the sea every morning before he heads to the RNZB studios for class and rehearsals.
"It’s a refreshing start."
The demands of ballet mean he has to keep fit and look after himself with a good diet and plenty of water and sleep. Although he admits the adrenaline rush after a performance often makes getting to sleep a challenge.
"It’s a bit of a juggle. You have to be mindful of that and what you put in your body."
He found the silver lining to the inaction of Covid lockdowns was that some of the niggling injuries he had accrued over the years just went away.
"For now I’m on my two feet so I’m happy."
Most importantly, working back in New Zealand has meant his parents can see him perform for a change.
"They now get the opportunity to come.
"I don’t think Mum has missed a show yet."
TO SEE
Royal New Zealand Ballet’s "Tutus on Tour", Dunedin’s Regent Theatre, November 9 and Invercargill’s Civic Theatre, November 12.
