Guest star mixes expertise with novelty at Queensland Ballet

An international artist brings renown to her title role.

International guest Alina Cojocaru will partner principal artist Victor Estevez in the Queensland Ballet production of Manon at QPAC. Picture: Richard Walker

Romanian-born ballerina Alina Cojocaru has danced the title role in Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Manon many times, but tries to approach each performance as if she were living the story for the first time.

A former principal artist with the Royal Ballet and English ­National Ballet, Cojocaru has returned to Australia to dance in two guest performances with Queensland Ballet this week.

The story of the courtesan Manon Lescaut is based on the Abbe Prevost’s 18th-century novel, which has furnished plots for opera, theatre, film and ballet.

“I find her fascinating,” Cojocaru said on Tuesday.

“It’s so easy to label people good, and label people bad – we tend to do that in life generally.

“She makes mistakes and bad choices, but maybe she does it because she hopes that things will turn out well. I think deep down she truly believes that everything will work out just fine.”

Cojocaru is the first inter­national guest to appear with Queensland Ballet since the start of the pandemic. She is dancing on Wednesday and Friday opposite Queensland Ballet principal artist Victor Estevez, as her lover Des Grieux.

Estevez said of his dance partner: “She is an incredible artist from our generation, probably one of the most recognised, so it’s an absolute pleasure for me to be partnering her.”

Cojocaru previously danced with Queensland Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty in 2015, and also has danced Manon with the Australian Ballet, opposite her real-life partner, Danish dancer Johan Kobborg.

She said it may be the last time she makes such a long journey from Europe without Kobborg and their two children. “This is my first long trip without them,” she said. “It’s something I don’t think I will do again – I miss them too much. I’d like to share with them what I do, and the places I go.”

MacMillan’s version of Manon, set to music by Jules Massenet, was first staged by the Royal Ballet in 1974.

Cojocaru said the choreography allowed the dancers enough breathing space to interpret their roles.

“It’s allowing us to be in the moment, instead of trying to act the story as we know it happens,” she said.