Tall poppy syndrome is holding us back, says Australian Ballet’s David Hallberg

Australian Ballet artistic director David Hallberg, centre, with (from left) principal artist Benedicte Bemet, senior artist Jarryd Madden and principal artist Dimity Azoury. Picture: Mark Stewart

Do we Australians have a problem with ambition? With thrusting ourselves forward into the limelight? Aggressively, cunningly or otherwise? The new artistic director of the Australian Ballet certainly thinks so. David Hallberg is an American classical ballet dancer who’s taken over the reins of the august company, and his message to his new Aussie cohort has been somewhat blunt: “I don’t want them to be afraid of the word ‘ambition’,” he declared while announcing the new rising stars in the company. This is a man used to steely Russian and American ballet corps, and he feels that Aussie dancers are somewhat lacking in firepower in the ambition department.

It’s that pesky inbuilt sense of egalitarianism that’s holding us back, according to Hallberg, and our tendency to avoid being the dreaded tall poppy. “I don’t want [the dancers] to feel like, ‘Oh, I can’t push myself forward, I can’t be hungry for roles and for opportunities’,” he explained. “I think a healthy sense of ambition goes a long way. Here in Australia, I think ambition is actually a really good word to use and a mentality to have.”

Quite. Because our lovely, matey, homegrown tall poppy syndrome can be ridiculously counterintuitive. It’s the idea that a field of poppies should all grow together, and if one poppy becomes impudently taller than the others then damn it, it should be lopped down to size quick smart. Perhaps it was brewed in the convict days when the lads all looked out for each other in the face of the master oppressor. And in our twisted Aussie way, the success of our nation’s tall poppies has come to be seen as a massive finger in some quarters to our beloved ideals of egalitariansim and mateship, and the ambitious among us just need to be, well, reduced. Don’t they?

Australia, get over yourselves. I’m with the Yank here. Over my years of London living I was surrounded by Aussies who’d escaped the tall poppy syndrome and were able to freely exercise their muscular ambitions in the worlds of theatre, music, literature, advertising and visual arts without the keen, beady eyes of their more insecure compatriots ready to cut them down. It felt exhilarating to be among that lot, a real privilege; felt like they were all lifting themselves higher than they could ever be in Australia. The expats egged each other on and helped each other out, removed from the narrow, judgmental little circles of their home towns while recognising the distinctive homegrown qualities that united them. A can-do mentality. A daring. A dry sense of humour aligned with a practical Aussie energy; no prima donnas or bullshit allowed. It felt like a world opening up.

Many of those Aussie expats are now flocking home, bringing with them their healthy, outsized ambitions alongside all the contacts and knowledge they’ve gained overseas. So let’s harness this. Open our world to them, celebrate their big picture mentality, give them opportunities to create and innovate in this very fortunate, relatively plague-free bubble. It’s an extraordinary moment in history for Australia, on a world scale. We should be exploiting it. Just look at the Aussie expat talent on our shores right now. Let’s try to keep them here.

This feels like an opportunity for a reset. We should seize our miraculous, relatively Covid-free status and sell our creativity to the world. Back to Hallberg: “I’m really pushing the dancers to define what their standard is themselves. And in a healthy way, pushing each other.” The ambitious understand the dignity in risk, the courage in being different. As Ringo Starr once said, “Of course I’m ambitious. What’s wrong with that? Otherwise you sleep all day.”