Australian Ballet leaps into new venue with 2025 slate

[Pelican Press 0]

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*********** Ballet leaps into new venue with 2025 slate

The *********** Ballet promises a season of transformation in 2025 as it takes its first steps at a new Melbourne venue.

“Wicked has gone – and the *********** Ballet has arrived,” artistic director David Hallberg told reporters at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on Tuesday.

The historic commercial venue, which usually presents musical theatre fare, will soon host the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet Oscar.

Based on the life and writings of Oscar Wilde, the production will also play the Sydney Opera House.

The move – due to the State Theatre closing for renovation until 2027 – has forced the national company to consider how it can do things differently, Hallberg said.

For a start, eight rows of seats have to be ripped out to make room for a full live orchestra, which will perform in view of the audience, rather than hidden in an orchestra pit.

“I’ve done a lot of thinking about how we present our ballets at the Regent … but it’s been a really great exercise, to be honest,” Hallberg told AAP.

While Oscar has been produced specifically for the Regent, it’s been challenging to find other ballets that fit the stage – an exercise that has helped shape the company’s 2025 slate.

“I am really proud of this season,” Hallberg said.

“It shows the weight and importance of repertoire this company is able to perform.”

The season features two world premieres – Blake Works VI (The Barre Project) by acclaimed US choreographer William Forsythe, and a new work from the company’s resident choreographer Stephanie Lake.

These are part of a triple bill titled Prism, which includes the *********** premiere of Glass Pieces by Jerome Robbins – a streetscape that evolves to the works of composer Philip Glass.

There are few details yet about the subject of Lake’s dance but it will feature a score by Robin Fox, and Hallberg promises it will be the opposite of 2024’s Circle Electric, with its huge cast of 53 dancers.

The 2025 season opens with John Neumeier’s Nijinsky, a tribute to the dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky who was widely held as the greatest dancer of the early 20th century.

The founding dancer of the Ballets Russes showed male dancers could be stars in their own right, but he suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of 29 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Nijinsky was a sensation when the company first staged it a decade ago with Callum Linnane in the titular role, but Hallberg won’t reveal whether Linnane will return to the part.

It will be followed by Carmen playing in Melbourne and Canberra after positive reviews in Sydney in 2024.

Then there’s Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon – the story of a woman on her way to join a convent who falls in love with a poor student before being seduced by a wealthy and powerful man.

There’s also long-time *********** Ballet artistic director David McAllister’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, which celebrates its 10th anniversary.

It will play in Adelaide and Brisbane, before closing the 2025 season in Sydney.

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