Star turn: from bricklayer’s son to a principal artist of ballet
Prodded into taking dance lessons at an early age, Callum Linnane tapped into the passion that has elevated him to the ranks of ballet’s most exciting performers.
Any performer knows that opening nights are a dizzying whirlwind of emotion and effort, but two have been particularly significant in the young life of dancer Callum Linnane.
The first took place in Linnane’s hometown of Ballarat, in rural Victoria. The production was The Jungle Book and the show was the culmination of a year of tap-dancing classes to which the then-seven-year old had grudgingly agreed, after a dance teacher at the Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts spotted his innate talent.
“I remember having a complete meltdown when the teacher mentioned I should enrol in a dance class,” recalls Linnane, now 26. “I was really worried about people finding out at school and being bullied; I was really quite scared of that. So she told me to try it for a year then I could stop. Deal. And I wasn’t that sold on it that first year.”
Something changed on that opening night that would transform Linnane’s life. “I remember being in the wings and the excitement of being there and dancing on stage. Afterwards Mum said, ‘Great, you’ve done your year now, you can stop.’ And I said, ‘No, I want to come back next year.’ And it kept going from there.”
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Fast forward 19 years and Linnane was again taking his bow on stage, only this time as a senior artist with the Australian Ballet. He had just performed the physically and emotionally demanding lead role of Count Vronsky in the opening night of Yuri Possokhov’s Anna Karenina in Melbourne in March. Suddenly artistic director David Hallberg leapt onto the stage and began addressing the audience, expressing his gratitude that live performance had finally returned after the company’s two-year Covid-induced hiatus.
But then the speech turned, and Hallberg began talking about the grit and determination and work ethic required of senior dancers. YouTube footage of the evening shows a look of intense concentration on Linnane’s face as it dawns on him that this isn’t any ordinary speech. Hallberg would go on to announce Linnane’s promotion to principal artist, the highest rank of dancer in the country, and the first such promotion under his new reign.
“For self-preservation you never want to think, ‘Is now the moment?’ so I was really focused on listening to David,” Linnane says. “But as it got closer I started breathing more quickly and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, is it actually happening?’ Then he says my name and that he’s promoting me to principal dancer and it knocks me for a six – the shock was genuine. I had so much family in the audience and the company had organised for them to come backstage when the curtain came down. I kept it together for the most part, but then I saw my brother, who was bawling his eyes out, Mum too, and I completely went to pieces. It was really special.”
Life as a classical dancer was anything but preordained for Linnane. The son and nephew in a family of bricklayers and whose mother was a nurse, Linnane says it was a shock to everyone when he showed a knack for, and interest in, dance. “The running joke was that Mum and Dad would fight about who the talent came from, but the truth is nobody knows,” Linnane says, laughing.
A naturally athletic, competitive kid, he found himself drawn to ballet when he began classes at the age of 11, because of the difficulty and drive the art form demanded. “You have to work so hard at ballet, at least in my case,” he says. “The amount of work it was going to take and the fact that my teacher saw something in me and pushed me really attracted me to it, [along with] the work ethic it created in me. I became pretty obsessed pretty quickly.”
‘Callum treats everyone like one of his closest friends. He’s always looking out for everyone. He’s very human and very relatable’
– Corps de ballet dancer Lilla Harvey
When he was 12, Linnane was accepted into the Australian Ballet School’s part-time program, and that work ethic was quickly in evidence. He would do a full day of high school in Ballarat before being accompanied by a family member on the 90-minute train trip to Melbourne for afternoon and evening classes, returning home by 10pm, six days a week. The following year he accepted a place in the School’s full-time program, still making the daily commute; and in 2014 he was offered a contract with the AB itself for the following year. The offer was particularly poignant, coming as it did on the back of the death of his beloved father that year, aged 54, from a brain aneurysm.
Linnane threw himself into his new job and people quickly started taking notice of the strong, striking dancer from the moment he joined the company. In 2016 he won the prestigious $20,000 Telstra Ballet Dancer of the Year Award, with then-artistic director David McAllister noting that Linnane possessed that “it” factor: “He is a dancer to watch. He’s got that sort of charisma and presence both on and off the stage that is quite captivating … to see that potential at this age is very exciting.”
Up the ranks he rose, promoted to coryphée in 2017, soloist in 2018 and senior artist in 2021. Reviewing the AB’s Celebration Gala last November, The Australian’s dance critic Deborah Jones noted: “Also decidedly on the way up is Callum Linnane, a senior artist knocking loudly on the principals’ dressing-room door … [his] pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto was by far the evening’s highlight … an homage to the art of preparing to perform and to the support a man gives a woman in partnering while being quietly, astonishingly sensual.
“I overheard a woman saying afterwards she could hardly breathe during it. Exactly so.”
Being a principal artist is a privilege Linnane has dreamt of since he was 12 years old, and he was further driven when he joined the company and mentored by the likes of Adam Bull and Andrew Killian. “They’ve always been very supportive; there were no airs about them,” Linnane says.
Now that he has been named as arguably one of the top 11 classical dancers in Australia, Linnane hopes to imbue the position with the same level of respect and support for others. “I don’t know if it’s an Australian thing but it’s pretty free of ego here, and that’s certainly something I don’t want to have,” he says. “To have young people super excited to have their first job in the ballet company then meet one of the principals and be scared to death? I don’t think that’s a culture that serves anyone well.”
Corps de ballet dancer Lilla Harvey joined the AB only last year but has already been partnered with Linnane in a couple of key pas de deux in the company’s current groundbreaking contemporary production, Kunstkamer. “To be a corps de ballet [member] and working with a principal has been a really amazing experience for me,” she says. “I’ve never worked with someone so mature and creative and generous in spirit in the way he partners. It’s been really special.
“Callum makes me feel really respected, so if I have suggestions he’s completely open to taking them on board but will also have the experience and knowledge to bring insight for me. I feel like I can trust him so it’s really relaxing to be on stage with him.”
Harvey admires the role the principals play in mentoring the junior company members. “You’ll always find them helping out younger dancers after class with steps and techniques. And they’re always there for a laugh as well; they’re very down to earth people, generous and grounded. That’s something I admire in all our principals.” She describes Linnane as exceptionally friendly and considerate off stage. “Callum is someone who treats everyone like one of his closest friends. He’s always having a laugh and looking out for everyone around him. He’s very human and very relatable.”
Before being promoted to principal artist, Linnane had already performed some of the repertoire’s most challenging and rewarding roles: Albrecht in Maina Gielgud’s Giselle; Vaslav Nijinsky in John Neumeier’s Nijinsky; and key roles in Wayne McGregor’s more contemporary work, Chroma.
Still driven by an unrelenting work ethic and a love of hard work – the AB performs more shows annually than almost any company in the world – Linnane also has a healthy respect for downtime, at least on his one day off each week. A keen culture vulture, he spends any spare time he has at live music gigs or his local cinema in Melbourne, often with his girlfriend and AB soloist, Imogen Chapman. The pair have been friends for eight years and a couple for around 12 months.
“She’s amazing, phenomenally talented,” says Linnane. “Being a ballet dancer is hard – it’s a really tough profession as well as being amazing – so what’s [also] wonderful about my relationship now is that there’s mutual understanding of what being a ballet dancer is. And it also means we get to spend a hell of a lot of time together!”
Linnane is cautiously hopeful that a seven-year-old boy stepping into a ballet class today would find a more accepting, supportive world.
“I hope it’s changed,” he says. “You’re seven years old and it feels like such a big deal to want to try something. It’s a dance class – who f. king cares? Back then it felt like if I committed to one class a week my life could potentially be over. But it feels like the world’s evolved a bit, that there’s more acceptance for being different from what society perceives as ‘the norm’, whether that’s fashion or translates to young boys doing dance. I hope so.”
Linnane is certainly doing his bit, one step at a time.