Latest Episode

Season 2, Ep 8

The Sleeping Beauty tour is having a dream run, selling out nearly every show in every town. Several weeks in and the new Artistic Director is really enjoying his time spent with the company on the road and has been impressed with the enthusiastic New Zealand audiences.

In Palmerston North and Lucy Green gets mobbed by autograph hunters after the show. She smiles from ear to ear as she chats and signs shoes and posters for the bevy of ballet fans hanging on her every word.When she joins her boyfriend Rory for the walk back to their motel she is buzzing from the encounter with her fans, but Rory cannot muster any excitement for his girlfriend. They couldn't have had more different years, with Lucy getting challenge after challenge while Rory battlesboredom and disappointment with his own lack of good roles.

Rory talks about how he deals with having to stand still on stage in his role in the corp de ballet for hours on end.Jaered too discusses his boredom with his lack of stage action this season.

The company are in Auckland for their final show. Pierre is not dancing tonight and is watching wistfully as his friends and colleagues dance in the beautiful civic theatre. He knows he will probably never dance there again and every show is another day closer to the moment he will have to say goodbye to the company and country he adores. Abigail comes off stage in her role as Aurora and notices how glum he looks and gives him a hug and some encouragement - telling him he has a whole career ahead of him. Still, he can't stop feeling sad that this is his last tour with the company.

The company roll into Rotorua for their last performance.After tonight they have a months holiday and there is a festive vibe in the last class of the year.But while most of the dancers can't wait for tonight's wrap party, Rory's mind is firmly on his performance.Finally , after months of being a bored bystander he is getting a shot at a lead role.Both the male and female Bluebirds are injured and Rory and Lucy are filling in tonight. It's a lesson Rory has already learnt, that he should keep an eye on everything but anything can happen and he could be called on to take anyone's place

In their dressing rooms before the show there is lots of talk about what pranks they might pull tonight.Its a tradition in ballet companies all over the world for the last show of the year to entail some extra 'creativity'. The rule is they have to pull off their jokes without anyone in the audience noticing and even though they have been warned against it by Ethan the dancers are determined to go out with a bang with some slight costume changes and choreography improvisations-including leaving Sergio to dance a group piece on his own.

Finally Rory is getting some of the limelight he has craved all season when he takes the stage in the Bluebird role.As he says, dancing is a tough career and lots of his hopes and dreams have had to be altered since leaving the school of ballet and joining the RNZB. He asks himself every day if he loves dancing, and today, as he relishes the opportunity to tackle a lead role, he does.Tomorrow? He doesn't know.

As the curtain comes down on the most ambitious production the company has ever attempted its a massive sense of relief for everyone in the company. Ethan is very pleased with his first tour with the company and is excited aboutthe coming year, he feels like he has made the right decision to take the job.

And after 34 shows in eight towns everyone has earned their drinks at the wrap party.

And Sergio has even more reason to celebrate than most of them - he's been given a full-time contract for 2012. It's just the Christmas present his girlfriend Abigail was hoping for: "I'm taking him home with me!" she says.

As the dancers celebrate another successful year they reflect on the season they've had.

As Lucy Balfour says, its going to be weird coming back next year and not see the familiar faces like Pierre's in such an intimate company. But new people do come along and they will keep flying the flag for the RNZB.

Watch On Demand

Become a fan of TV3 on Facebook , on Twitter .