Royal New Zealand Ballet

Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Helen Clark announced today the provision of a one-off cash injection of $760,000 to the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Helen Clark said the one-off payment would enable the Ballet to stabilise its financial position.

"Deficits over a number of years have eliminated the Company's working capital, resulting in it operating for a period of each year in overdraft. This has severely restricted the Ballet's operations and programming.

"While the Company has shown that it can operate within its existing budget over the last two years, improving its working capital will alleviate the need for expensive overdraft facilities and make it less exposed to the financial failure of a single season.

"It will also enhance sponsorship confidence and allow the Ballet, which is a superb ballet company of international standing, to flourish," Helen Clark said.

The Company was established in 1952 and is an independent trust incorporated under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. It employs 32 dancers from New Zealand and around the world and is based in Wellington. It spends up to twenty weeks of the year touring throughout New Zealand and presents a mixture of classical and contemporary dance works.

It received public funding through Creative New Zealand until 1 July 1998, when it became directly funded through Vote Culture and Heritage. The RNZB’s baseline Vote funding is $3.195 million (GST inclusive).