Save The Last Dance Abigail's Swan Song

The Lead Dancer’s at the Pointe of No Return.

- Julie Jacobson

Abigail Boyle gets the irony. For seven nights recently, a 20m-high image of the 33-year-old has been beamed into the sky above the water over Wellington’s Oriental Bay as part of an art installation using the capital’s Carter Fountain as a canvas. She is dancing an excerpt from Fokine’s Dying Swan.

An audience favourite and one of a core group of dancers who gained a raft of new fans following the fly-on-the-wall TV series Secret Lives of Dancers, Abigail will retire from the Royal New Zealand Ballet next month, stepping out of the spotlight after a 13-year career.

Her performance in Artemis Rising as the eponymous Greek goddess – a role that reflects Abigail’s whakapapa and was specially created for her by choreographer Sarah FosterSproull – will be her swansong.

It’s the culmination of a stellar career that has seen Abigail work with some of the world’s top choreographers and take on numerous lead roles, including Ada in 2018’s The Piano: The Ballet.

But it was her role as Giselle’s Myrtha, the vengeful, ballbusting, grand jeté-ing Queen of the Wilis, that Abigail found the most demanding.

“Stamina-wise, she is very hard and, character-wise, I couldn’t shake her,” she says. “I’d leave work, go home and still feel like a real b****. I couldn’t get rid of her!”