Australian Ballet
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The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest
classical ballet Classical ballet is any of the traditional, formal styles of ballet that exclusively employ classical ballet technique. It is known for its aesthetics and rigorous technique (such as en pointe, pointe work, turnout (ballet), turnout of the legs, ...
company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and director Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director. Today, it is recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies and performs upwards of 150 performances (both in Australia and overseas) a year.


History

The roots of the Australian Ballet can be found in the Borovansky Ballet, a touring
repertory A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom ...
company founded in 1940 by the Czech dancer Edouard Borovansky. Borovansky had been a dancer in the touring ballet company of the famous
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n ballerina
Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova. (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating ...
and, after visiting Australia on tour with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, he decided to remain in Australia, establishing a ballet school in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
in 1939, out of which he developed a performance group which became the Borovansky Ballet. The company was supported and funded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd from 1944. Following Borovansky's death in 1959, the British dancer and administrator Dame Peggy van Praagh was invited to become artistic director of the company. J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd decided to disband the Borovansky Ballet in 1961. In 1961, J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust received federal subsidy towards the establishment of a national ballet company. These organisations established the Australian Ballet Foundation to assist with the establishment of a new company, which in 1962 became the Australian Ballet. Peggy van Praagh, who had been kept on a retainer by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd through the intervening year between the disbanding of the Borovansky Ballet and the establishment of the Australian Ballet, was invited to become the founding artistic director of the company. The majority of the dancers employed by the fledgling company were drawn from former members of the Borovansky Ballet. The company was founded with a charter to use Australian choreographers and produce Australian work. The first performance by the Australian Ballet was Tchaikovsky's ''
Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...
'', staged at
Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, Australia, refers to three theatres of the same name none of which remain standing. They were located in central Sydney on either Pitt Street or Quay Street. History First theatre (1887–1933) The original Her M ...
on 2 November 1962. The principal dancers in the first season were Kathleen Gorham, Marilyn Jones, Garth Welch, and the Swedish-born (1935–2005). Van Praagh also invited the Royal Ballet's Ray Powell to temporarily become the company's first ballet master, with Leon Kellaway (brother of Cecil Kellaway), a former dancer with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, as the company's first ballet teacher. In later years Sir Robert Helpmann, Marilyn Jones and Maina Gielgud made major contributions as artistic directors of the Australian Ballet. In 1964, the first fully Australian performance, Helpmann's ''The Display'' was performed. In the same year, van Praagh established the
Australian Ballet School The Australian Ballet School is the premier ballet training facility in Australia, located in Melbourne. History The Australian Ballet School was founded in 1964 as the primary training facility for The Australian Ballet by Dame Margaret Scot ...
, which was formed specially to train dancers for the company. Dame Margaret Scott was the founding director of the school, followed by Gailene Stock, Marilyn Rowe, and then Lisa Pavane, all three former company principal artists. Choreographers including Graeme Murphy, Meryl Tankard, and Natalie Weir rose to prominence at TAB from the 1970s to the 1990s.


Former artistic directors

The company's previous artistic directors were: *Dame Peggy van Praagh (1962–74; 1978) * Sir Robert Helpmann (1965–76) *Anne Woolliams (1976–77) * Marilyn Jones (1979–82) * Maina Gielgud (1983–96) * Ross Stretton (1996–2001) * David McAllister (2001-2021)


Description and governance

The Australian Ballet (TAB) is based in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
; its Southbank headquarters is the Primrose Potter Australian Ballet Centre, named after its long-term supporter Lady (Primrose) Potter. The company tours to mainland state capital cities within Australia, with annual seasons in Melbourne at the State Theatre (accompanied by Orchestra Victoria) and in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
at the
Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...
accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra. Other venues are the Lyric Theatre at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
, and the Adelaide Festival Centre in
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
. The company also tours internationally. The Australian Ballet works in close cooperation with the Australian Ballet School, of which many of the company's dancers are graduates. The company's income is derived from
box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...
sales, along with funding from the Australian, Victorian, and
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
governments; corporate sponsors; private donors; and bequests.


People

Since 2021 and the company's artistic director is David Hallberg, who was a principal dancer with the
American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...
until 2020. In December 2022, Lissa Twomey was appointed as Executive Director of the Company. An arts industry leader with extensive experience domestically and internationally in management of top tier performing arts organisations. The music director and chief conductor of The Australian Ballet appointed in 2022 is Jonathan Lo, replacing Nicolette Fraillon, the world's only woman chief conductor of a ballet company.


Dancers

The Australian Ballet has five levels within the company. They are (in ascending order): corps de ballet, coryphée, soloist, senior artist, and principal dancer.


Telstra Ballet Dancer Award

The Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards have been made annually since 2003, in support of the aspirations of The Australian Ballet's elite young dancers. It is the biggest prize available specifically to a dancer in Australia, with a cash prize of $20,000 to the winner. The Telstra People's Choice Award is made to the most popular of the nominees in that year, using internet and SMS voting. The winner of the People's Choice receives a cash prize of $5,000.


Notable performances

In 1964, Robert Helpmann's work ''The Display'' was the first TAB production in which the music, designer, theme, and choreographer were all Australian; included were
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
, lyrebirds, and a picnic in the bush. In 1992, ''Clara'', an adaptation of ''
The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...
'' by choreographer Graeme Murphy, was a significant work, as he turned it into a story about migration to Australia. In 1997, TAB commissioned Stephen Page, artistic director of Indigenous dance company
Bangarra Dance Theatre Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-bor ...
, to choreograph a piece for dancers from both companies, which resulted in ''Rites'', which was set to
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...
's ''
The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring'' () is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky ...
''. For its 60th anniversary in 2023, TAB presented ''Identity'', a double bill commissioned by Hallberg, which premiered in May 2023 at the Sydney Opera House before moving to
Arts Centre Melbourne Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...
in June. The performance comprises two works: ''The Hum'', composed by Yorta Yorta woman Deborah Cheetham Fraillon and with costumes designed by Taungurung designer Annette Sax (the first Indigenous women to perform these roles in a TAB production), by Wiradjuri choreographer Daniel Riley of ADT; and ''Paragon'', by resident choreographer Alice Topp. While ''The Hum'' represents Indigenous dance, ''Paragon'' focuses on the history of The Australian Ballet.


Company

Dancers with The Australian Ballet are:


Principal artists


Senior Artists


Soloists


Coryphées


Corps de ballet


Orchestra Victoria

Following a period of turmoil, Orchestra Victoria became a wholly owned subsidiarity of The Australian Ballet in July 2014


See also

* Australian Archives of the Dance, created by TAB in 1972


References


External links

*
The Australian Ballet School

The Australian Ballet Collection
at the
Arts Centre Melbourne Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Ballet, The APRA Award winners Australian Ballet, The National Dance Award winners Performing groups established in 1962 1962 establishments in Australia Ballet in Australia History of ballet Sydney Opera House Performing arts in Melbourne