2023 Harry Haythorne Award
Shaun James Kelly receives the Harry Haythorne Award
The Harry Haythorne Choreographic Award recognizes the development of exceptional choreographic talent by a Royal New Zealand Ballet dancer. We were thrilled to award Soloist and Choreographer in Residence, Shaun James Kelly, the 2023 Harry Haythorne Award.
Prismatic
David McAllister, RNZB Acting Artistic Director, has invited Shaun to choreograph a new work for Platinum, the RNZB’s 70th Anniversary celebration.
The work will be inspired by RNZB’s landmark ballet, Prismatic Variations, which was choreographed by ballet company founder Poul Gnatt, and produced by dance icon Russell Kerr, making it a fitting tribute for the Company’s 70th anniversary.
The work will be approximately 7 minutes long and use a large proportion of the company. The music will be the last couple of variations of Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn. David will be asking Shaun to expand on this work for Tutus on Tour in 2024, using the entire work by Brahms. This will be about 20 minutes long.
For 2024 the RNZB have commissioned Shaun to expand on this work for Tutus on Tour, performance with 22 tutus shows across the country in February and March 2024.
About Shaun James Kelly
Born in Perth, Scotland, Shaun trained at the Dance School of Scotland before undertaking training at the English National Ballet School. On graduating in 2011, he took up a contract with the Tivoli Ballet Theatre in Copenhagen, and in 2014 joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Since joining the Royal New Zealand Ballet Shaun has taken on leading classical and contemporary roles and created new, exciting work for the Company.
Shaun was the winner of the 2016 Harry Haythorne Choreographic Award for his work Blanc. In 2017, he subsequently created Aura for Tutus on Tour and choreographed a work that featured in New Zealand designer Andrea Moore’s catwalk show at New Zealand Fashion Week. Shaun was appointed as Choreographer in Residence with the RNZB in 2018 and created a children’s ballet, Little Red, for Te Papa’s school holiday programme.
As an RNZB Choreographer-in-Residence he created his first mainstage work The Ground Beneath Our Feet in 2019 for the New Choreographic Series. For the 2020 RNZB RAW studio performance he developed a work born out of Covid lockdown, The Things We Left Unsaid. This duet was also performed as part of RAD 14+ Gala. In 2022, Shaun choreographed Alba as part of the RNZB’s first all-digital season Ballet Bites and his work The Ground Beneath Our Feet was staged as part of Tutus on Tour.