Queensland Ballet announces new artistic director – and a surprise comeback
By Nick Dent
It’s been a long and chaotic dance, but Queensland Ballet hopes to draw the curtain on a year of uncertainty with the announcement of Spanish-born Ivan Gil-Ortega as the company’s new artistic director.
A former principal dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet, Gil-Ortega, 47, will be the seventh artistic director since Queensland Ballet was founded in 1960.
He will take over in February from acting artistic director Greg Horsman, whom many expected to win the job following the abrupt departure of Leanne Benjamin last year after just five months in the role.
Ivan Gil-Ortega has been named Queensland Ballet’s new artistic director.Credit: Karine Grace
Executive director Dilshani Weerasinghe said the right person needed to be ready to crusade for government funding for Queensland Ballet and be willing to engage with donors and corporate partners.
“Ivan joins us with some exciting ideas in all these spaces, is already known to some in our donor family, and we are very much looking forward to his fresh thinking and energy,” Weerasinghe said.
The company’s chair, Brett Clark AM, acknowledged Horsman’s “invaluable contribution” and said it was “no secret” that Queensland Ballet had been through a turbulent time.
Benjamin’s exit was one of several crises to hit Queensland arts organisations in 2024, including the resignation of Queensland Theatre’s Lee Lewis and that company’s subsequent decision to cancel the entire season of the play POTUS following a cast injury.
Nevertheless, Queensland Ballet would go on to have a blockbuster in October with its sellout season of Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon.
Gil-Ortega, who speaks five languages and will relocate with his family from Zurich in Switzerland to take up the post, has worked with Queensland Ballet before on another hit production, Strictly Gershwin.
He also danced in Shanghai Ballet’s production of The Lady of the Camellias in Brisbane in December.
He said he was committed to fostering a “collaborative and inclusive atmosphere that respects and honours the legacy of ballet while pushing creative boundaries”.
“I have long admired Queensland Ballet and Queenslanders, and I cannot wait to get started,” he said.
The company has been under a cloud since the departure of Li Cunxin, aka “Mao’s Last Dancer”, in 2023 due to ill health.
However, in another surprise announcement, Queensland Ballet revealed that Li would be returning in the newly created role of chair of its endowment fund.
“The only way to sustain a charitable, for-purpose organisation such as this one is to build the strongest foundation of support possible: our endowment,” Li said.
Li Cunxin, Queensland Ballet’s artistic director for 11 years, was widely admired both as a ballet professional and a canny manager and fundraiser.Credit: Queensland Ballet
“There can be no higher honour than ensuring that QB continues to thrive forever, beyond me and all of us.”
Before his arrival in Brisbane, Gil-Ortega will attend the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland, where Li will coincidentally receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.
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