Rooftop bar with city views a key part of $100m ballet makeover

Queensland Ballet’s home has had a massive revamp, with the $100m makeover of the former boot factory boasting a new theatre, more facilities for performers and a killer rooftop bar.

Rooftop bars are all the rage and Queensland Ballet’s $100 million revamped home at the Thomas Dixon Centre on Montague Street in Brisbane’s West End has one of the best. What has that got to do with ballet? Well the Kite Terrace, as its called, will be the scene of many a gatherings in the years to come and it faces north and has the most amazing views of the city lit up at night.

It’s just one of the treats in the new state of the art building designed by Conrad Gargett Architects who worked collaboratively with Queensland Ballet and the Queensland Government to design a centre conducive to performing arts and community engagement while retaining the heritage values of the building at its heart.

On an exclusive sneak peek at the centre, which was expected to be opened by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on June 14, although that date may now be pushed back, Queensland Ballet’s artistic director Li Cunxin beams at the wonders within.

Li Cunxin with dancers Ari Thompson and Luke Dimattina in Peter and The Wolf costumes. The family ballet will be the first show in the new revamped Queensland Ballet HQ at the Thomas Dixon Centre in West End: Picture Lachie Millard

“It’s so exciting,” he says, standing on the stage of a new 350 seat Talbot Theatre that is part of the refurb.

“It’s transformational for Queensland Ballet and for the performing arts in Queensland. We are very excited and we are really looking forward to being able to share this space within the wider community.”

People wishing to be part of the build can dedicate a seat and the theatre can be booked for various uses when our state ballet company isn’t using it.

Li says people are queuing up for that.

Right now the seats, velvetish numbers sourced from South America, are covered in plastic and Li jokes that folks back in his homeland, China, sometimes leave the plastic on permanently.

Artist’s impression of the entrance to the revamped Thomas Dixon Centre

But patrons can be assured that won’t be happening here he says pointing out that the stage in his new theatre is as big as the Lyric Theatre at QPAC which means the dancers will be able to rehearse here for main stage productions.

A production of the beloved family ballet Peter and The Wolf was due to open the theatre on June 24, but that may change due to possible construction delays.

It’s a production cancelled twice due to Covid and it’s a ballet for the whole family featuring the iconic music of Sergei Prokofiev, choreographed by QB chief ballet master Greg Horsman.

The dancers will love the new centre Li says and the two who join us on our sneak peek, Luke Dimattina and Ari Thompson, are wide-eyed. Thompson says he is “quite overwhelmed”.

“The dancers are so excited,” Li says. “We are keeping it as a surprise for most of them. They are about to get one of the top dance facilities in the world.”

The $100 million refurbishment of the Thomas Dixon Centre under construction

They will have spanking new studios named after the company’s various artistic directors including the largest, the Li Cunxin studio, and there are dressing rooms and facilities are state of the art. The building has been designed for sustainability and wellness with even the lighting designed to mirror the circadian rhythms of the human body.

Light from outside filters down through skylights making it a much more open building than it was and more than five times the size. It will feature a welcoming entrance off Drake Street which runs on the south side of the centre, with the Ian Potter Promenade inside, named for The Ian Potter Foundation, a major donor. There will be a cafe, a lobby bar, a wellness suite, a community studio and the Bunker Barre.

“The Bunker Barre uses told World War Two bunkers,” Li points out. “That retains the history and it will be an intimate bar for visitors audiences and the general public.”

Queensland Ballet artistic director Li Cunxin Photo by David Kelly

The crowning glory is the Kite Terrace up on the roof. The Kite Terrace hovers above the Talbot Theatre celebrating Queensland’s wide blue skies and Brisbane’s city views, paying tribute to Li Cunxin’s childhood. As a boy growing up in poverty in rural China, Li spent rare and precious time with his father, making and flying kites. They carried his hopes and dreams, carefully written in messages tied to their tails, up towards the clouds, as related in his international bestseller Mao’s Last Dancer.

His journey in life has been an extraordinary one and standing there on the terrace looking out at the city Li seems almost overwhelmed himself. He has been at QB for ten years and is building infrastructure for the future - first the Queensland Ballet Academy at Kelvin Grove, now the Thomas Dixon Centre and soon a production centre at Yatala which will complete the trifecta.

As we take in the Kite Terrace Li points out that rainwater will run down through the tiles here to be recycled and used elsewhere in the building although we’re not sure what will happen if someone spills a drink. That’s a problem for the future and that future is almost here and it has a view of Brisbane that is Li Cunxin’s vision splendid.