Photo: Saltarello has been slightly reworked for a larger stage.

Cinderella is a certainty and Swan Lake can always be relied on to lay the golden box office egg. There is a beautiful tradition supporting the continued performance of the world's big white ballets. But artistic director Gary Harris, of the Royal New Zealand Ballet's triple bill featuring Saltarello, Abhisheka and The Celebrated Soubrette, believes it is "imperative that the company presents works like these, where the boundaries are pushed out for the dancers, the company and the audience. This is ballet for the 21st century." Every art form must continue to grow and develop with the times. But contemporary programmes are notoriously difficult to sell. "People love going to see the story ballets, because they are familiar and they know what they will get. With the contemporary bills, they are not so sure."

One of the hottest issues facing the future of ballet is striking the elusive balance between traditional movement and innovation

One of the hottest issues facing the future of ballet is striking the elusive balance between traditional movement and innovation. For Harris that means keeping the classical genre visible, in the arabesques and the pointe work. But he wants to see those elements choreographed so the work looks fresh, quirky, extraordinary and athletic. It has worked, in Harris' book, if the audience is on the edge of their seats saying, "Wow! Just look at what these people can do with their bodies". Saltarello has already proved its "wow" worth, bursting on stage for its 2001 premiere in Wellington dressed in slinky black and silver, and punching out a near perfect blend of edgy, contemporary originality in fine classical technique, set to a medieval musical score. Choreographer Christopher Hampson, barely in his 30s, has since created the company's version of Romeo and Juliet, again a celebration of classical technique and storytelling, but given a contemporary twist, no less effective for its supreme subtlety.