Every dancers’ dream is to step on stage in a principal role.
That dream will be coming true for Ella Chambers and Dane Head when the Royal New Zealand Ballet travels south to Dunedin and Invercargill this month.
Chambers will be stepping on stage as Gretel in Dunedin while Head gets to do the honours as Hansel in Invercargill.
"It’s very exciting," Head and Chambers both say.
"It means everything to me, it’s the dream, you know, to do the big principal roles," Head says.
It is the culmination of many years of work and training for both dancers.
Auckland-born Head started dancing at just 4 years old after going with his older sister to dance classes.
"Apparently I wanted to give it a crack."
While he did all sorts of dancing growing up, including jazz and tap, training at Bays School of Dance and then Mt Eden Ballet Academy, ballet always stood out for him.
He remembers being selected to be a child extra in a production of Don Quixote and sitting on stage watching a male dancer complete an amazing double spin jump.
"I thought it was the coolest thing ever. There have been lots of little moments like that. Ballet has always been there."
He was about 10 when he realised he could make a career out of it. In 2017 he won a two-week full-time scholarship at the Central School of Ballet in London.
"I’ve never looked back, never really had a plan B. I hated school. I was so determined. To this day its such a passion for the art form itself."
So he moved to Wellington at 16 to study at the New Zealand School of Dance as a classical major.
"I still have this huge passion for the art form, and for wanting to do these roles proud."
In 2018, Dane placed third at the New Zealand National Young Performer Awards and was a finalist at the Asian Grand Prix in Hong Kong.
His first proper chance to dance with the RNZB came in 2020 when he performed in Sleeping Beauty, and then the following year he was awarded the Ballet’s Todd Scholar award.
"That was a dream come true. I was very lucky. I’ve been with the company ever since."
Head was promoted to artist in 2022, dancing the role of The Fab Five’s Thiery in Loughlan Prior’s Cinderella, and performed in Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet, Sarah Foster-Sproull’s The Autumn Ball and Twyla Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles.
"It was such a blast, such a dream role, he’s such a cool character and technically it was quite hard and there was definitely lot of pressure to keep improving my technique."
Getting the opportunity to take the lead for the Invercargill show is significant for him.
"The story is a classic. You want to do it justice, do the story and production proud, so it’s a lot of pressure, but it’s good — pressure makes diamonds."
While Hansel’s dance steps are not technically demanding, he says, the mental demands of being on stage the whole time makes it a challenge.
"You have to be constantly switched on and in character, but that is also what makes it super fun; you really become the character."
He has found he has spent a lot of time thinking about the character and how he wants to portray it.
"At the end of the day it’s about telling the story, how you get that across to the audience. A big shout-out to one of our soloists, Shaun James Kelly — he was in the original cast and did such an amazing job at capturing the audience, and taking the audience on a journey with him. It’s impressive to watch. So I’ve been taking inspiration from that."
These sort of roles make all the hard work worth it.
"Taking your final bow after a show is the most rewarding feeling, it’s very cool."
Chambers says her character, Gretel, is also fun to play, but admits to some nerves and anxious moments in taking on such a massive role.
They both have found the support from older dancers and those who have performed the role before have made the step-up an easier transition.
"We’ve had an awesome time in the studio as well as we are preparing for these shows," she says.
Preparing for the role of Gretel has meant longer days in the studio but not all of it has been active dancing, as like Head, she has been working on her portrayal of the character.
"As there is so much acting and character in these roles, there is a lot of freedom to have your own take, so we have agency in that and its been cool to watch the other cast, how Kirby [Selchow] does it, how she acted in that moment and take inspiration from that and also find my own way."
Finding her own way is what Chambers has been doing ever since she was a child. Her mother took her to dance class when she was 4, but she soon found the classes too boring.
"I didn’t want to do it any more."
When they moved from Sydney to Port Macquarie when she was 8, her mother again suggested dance class, this time as a way to make new friends.
"Very quickly I learned it was not as boring as I thought and loved it. I soon gave up jazz and all other extra curricular activities as I just wanted to do ballet every day. I also loved the structure and beauty of it."
While she loved it, she did not think she could make a career out of it as it was "too much hard work".
"I felt I couldn’t physically do that."
"That was amazing — I thought maybe the hard work could be worth it if I could be one of those swans on stage. The beauty of it hooked me, so I got more serious after that — it wasn’t just an afternoon activity."
She joined the Australian Ballet School programme, where dancers from all around Australia do one week’s intensive training at the school, and it eventually led to an audition for the fulltime Melbourne-based school.
For the next five years she dedicated herself to learning ballet, before graduating in 2018.
"It was a lot of hard work every day but I loved it."
After graduating she started auditioning, including for the RNZB, and was offered a job in New Zealand as an apprentice, with her first role in The Nutcracker as a snowflake and pōhutukawa flower.
In 2019 she performed in the original production of Hansel & Gretel as a dew fairy, and has also performed in Prior’s Cinderella, Olivier Wevers’ The Sofa and as a fairy in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
But the highlight so far has been performing the roles of peasant and wilis in Giselle in 2021 — even though it was exhausting.
"I loved the duality of the fun peasants jumping around on stage and having the time of your life and then the wilis, these heartbroken ghosts using pure classical technique. I loved getting to do both of those."
TO SEE:
Hansel & Gretel by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Civic Theatre, Invercargill, November 15; Regent Theatre Dunedin, November 18.
