David Hallberg announces first season with the Australian Ballet

The Australian Ballet’s new artistic director will celebrate his new home with an outdoor spectacular in Melbourne next year.

Ako Kondo, Amber Scott and Benedicte Bemet are appearing in Serenade, part of David Hallberg’s first season as head of the Australian Ballet. Picture: Aaron Francis

David Hallberg has wasted no time in putting his stamp on the Australian Ballet since emerging from hotel quarantine in Melbourne on Friday.

The former New York resident and principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre led his first class with the Australian Ballet, and on Tuesday unveiled his first season with the company.

“You will see, I guarantee, a difference in the way the dancers perform, because of the experience I’ve had,” said Hallberg, whose career has seen him dance with the Royal Ballet and as a principal with the Bolshoi.

His opening gambit next year is an outdoor spectacular at the Margaret Court Arena, where among other highlights he will showcase the women of the corps de ballet in the famous Kingdom of the Shades scene from La Bayadere. The performances in February, called Summertime at the Ballet, will be the company’s first with a live audience since the lockdown last March.

“My first statement as artistic director is really to pay homage to the tradition and history and the richness of the Australian Ballet,” Hallberg said.

“It’s really a gift saying, ‘We’ve weathered the storm, let’s get back on stage and see the Australian Ballet at its best.’”

The ballet season includes a program called New York Dialects featuring two works by ­George Balanchine and a commission from Pam Tanowitz. It ­includes Balanchine’s Serenade from 1934, which the legendary choreographer described as “just a dance in the moonlight”.

A second program, Counterpointe, contrasts modern and classical choreography, with William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, and Marius Petipa’s Act III from Raymonda, in Hallberg’s staging.

Two evening-length works round out the year: Yuri Possokhov’s Anna Karenina, and John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet.

Hallberg has been a guest artist with the Australian Ballet. In March he was named successor to David McAllister as the company’s artistic director. His final performances as a dancer were cancelled due to the pandemic but he said he still hoped to make his formal farewell from the stage. “It would be nice to bid the stage farewell as a professional dancer, ­especially in a city, in a country I’m making my own,” he said.