A bold, history-making collaboration between the Royal New Zealand Ballet and The New Zealand Dance Company is at the heart of the exciting Home, Land & Sea – a triple bill which explores identity, place and, ultimately, belonging.  

Following the success of its opening season at Wellington’s St James Theatre, where audiences were taken on an emotional journey through the three works – The Way Alone, Chrysalis and Home, Land & Sea, the dance tour is now heading to Auckland then onto Christchurch.

The opening performance, The Way Alone, by master choreographer Stephen Baynes is a reflective, contemplative work set to lesser-known compositions by Tchaikovsky. It offers a quiet intensity – a Romanticism that complements the season’s larger themes. ‘The ballet is fundamentally an expression of Tchaikovsky’s music,’ says Baynes. ‘It’s a personal piece, but one that I hope speaks to the shared human experience.’

The second work in the triple bill is Chrysalis, a world premiere from RNZB choreographer-in-residence Shaun James Kelly. Set to the transcendent music of Philip Glass, Chrysalis is a visually arresting, emotionally resonant piece about metamorphosis – both personal and universal.

‘I feel this work is deeply relevant right now,’ says Kelly. ‘Chrysalis is about friendship, connection and self-discovery. It’s modern in its aesthetic but rooted in the elegance of classical ballet.’

The modern aesthetic owes much to acclaimed fashion designer Rory William Docherty, who collaborated with Kelly to create striking, sculptural costumes that move like liquid silk. ‘It’s been a dream,’ Kelly says. ‘Rory’s designs bring the choreography to life in an entirely new way.’

The thought-provoking power of dance is taken to yet another level in the third and groundbreaking new work Home, Land & Sea by choreographer Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, whose signature is not only the movement of bodies but of histories, ideologies and emotion. This is a physically powerful piece, a reaching toward a future rooted in unity, artistic risk and cultural reflection.

‘We’re not creating a nostalgic version of the past or a tidy vision of the future,’ says Patterson, a New Zealand Arts Laureate known for work that weaves Te Ao Māori with contemporary dance. ‘Home, Land & Sea is being built as a space for reflection and resistance – a place where the audience can sit with complexity, with connection and with hope.’

Patterson, who is the artistic director of The New Zealand Dance Company, has spent over two decades crafting choreographies that feel as intellectually urgent as they are physically captivating. This new work is no exception. Featuring six dancers from each company, Home, Land & Sea is as much a meeting of minds and movement vocabularies as it is an expression of Aotearoa’s collective consciousness.

‘The dancers are complex, layered, amazing individuals,’ he says. ‘I was asking the contemporary dancers and the ballet dancers to ask each other questions through movement – and to try to answer them choreographically. The result is a kind of cultural fusion – a blueprint, perhaps, for the future of dance in New Zealand.’

Set to an original, emotionally searing score by iconic New Zealand musician Shayne P Carter, the work unfolds as a series of choreographic meditations. There’s no linear narrative. Instead, Patterson offers moments – fluid, grounded, sometimes uncomfortable – as metaphors for national identity, colonisation, and the ever-shifting tides of belonging.

‘This is a work that holds space for beauty and loss, for uncertainty and courage,’ Patterson says. ‘It’s very much of this moment.’

Royal New Zealand Ballet artistic director Ty King-Wall describes the work as a landmark. ‘It represents all we’re striving for at RNZB – kotahitanga, creative courage and deep cultural connection. Bringing our two companies together in this way is a rare and beautiful thing.’

That shared experience – of searching, of reckoning, of hoping – is the connective tissue of Home, Land & Sea. In a country still grappling with its past and navigating its future, this season feels not only timely, but vital.

‘It’s a meditation on who we are, where we come from and where we’re going,’ Patterson says. ‘The land and sea are always in conversation. Their boundaries are fluid. Our identities are too. This work lives in that in-between space – where certainty slips and strength is found in connection.’

Indeed, the connection is palpable – not only between dancers, but between institutions, traditions, and generations. As the final notes of Carter’s score fade and the curtain falls, what remains is not a conclusion but an invitation: to reflect, to question, to feel.

Home, Land & Sea: Wellington, St James Theatre, July 24-26; Auckland, Aotea Centre, July 31-August 2; Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal, August 8-9. To book and find out more, visit Rnzb.org.nz