Famous choreographer creates new ballet for David Hallberg
The Australian Ballet will next year welcome revered choreographer William Forsythe to Australia to shape a work on the dancers for the first time.
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In 2020 David Hallberg had the opportunity of a lifetime cruelly taken from him. Revered choreographer William Forsythe had agreed to create a new work for Hallberg, then-principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Ballet, but the pandemic put paid to that. In 2021 Hallberg was announced as the eighth artistic director of the Australian Ballet. No farewells to his dance career. No Forsythe world premiere.
All was not lost, however, as the AB will next year welcome Forsythe to Australia to shape a work on the dancers for the first time.
“Bill [Forsythe] and I were going to do a project at the Bolshoi ... but nothing eventuated. I don’t like to think of that too often,” Hallberg says with a laugh. “But hey, here I am in a role I love, bringing Bill Forsythe to Australia.”
The new ballet, Blake Works VI is part of Prism, a new triple bill that will be performed during the AB’s 2025 season, launched in Melbourne on Tuesday. Forsythe’s production, to the music of electronic musician James Blake, will be staged alongside a new work from AB resident choreographer Stephanie Lake and American dance master Jerome Robbins’s Glass Pieces (1983).
It is a season that spans the arc of big classical ballets – Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s beautiful, tragic Manon and former AB artistic director David McAllister’s Sleeping Beauty – to boundary-pushing contemporary classical works including Nijinsky, John Neumeier’s moving tribute to legendary dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, and the return of Johan Inger’s striking, contemporary production Carmen.
Next year marks Lake’s second as resident choreographer and while she is conscious of the calibre of choreographers she is creating alongside – “Forsythe is one of my choreographic heroes ... and Robbins choreographed West Side Story, I mean come on!” – she believes the three works make for dynamic programming.
In contrast to this year’s Circle Electric, which features 50 dancers in a thrilling, energetic performance to a loud, propulsive score, her new work focuses on six or seven dancers in a deliberate paring back, allowing her to create on a more intimate scale.
“I’m interested in the idea that seemingly small life decisions can radically alter the trajectory of future events and have far reaching consequences. How much is determined and how much is free will?” The piece will repeat from the same physical starting point but with different outcomes each time.
Hallberg believes the company’s 76-strong dancers and audiences alike are ready to embrace the diverse repertoire, with the new Forsythe work a prime example.
“It’s an amazing experience for the dancers, to work with the GOAT, to tackle his movement style, how he’s pushed the boundaries of technique, so we’re all looking forward to bringing that into the repertoire.”
The AB board is yet to appoint a new executive director following the abrupt resignation of Lissa Twomey in June, just 20 months into the role. Former chief financial officer Sally Underwood was brought back last month to serve as interim executive director.
