One of the shortest ballets performed by The Australian Ballet is called Grand Tarantella. It is only seven minutes long. One of the longest is the full-length production The Sleeping Beauty, which has a prologue and three acts and totals 136 minutes long plus intervals! But no matter the length of a ballet, it will take many weeks, sometimes months, to get it on stage.

The first step is choosing the dancers. This is called ‘casting the ballet’ and is usually done by the artistic director, the choreographer and sometimes the repetiteur. If the ballet has already been created on another company, they will try to choose dancers who have a similar style and quality to the original cast.  Dancers may also be chosen because of their different dynamics which could develop the ballet further, and sometimes because the role will help the dancer to develop their own qualities.

When a new ballet is being created on the company, the choreographer looks for dancers who have a particular physicality or movement style that will best suit the subject or mood of the work. It’s normal to have two or three casts, which means two or three dancers are required to learn the same part. Once everything is decided, the official casting is posted on the notice board for the entire company to see, and rehearsals are scheduled.

The amount of time required to teach a ballet depends on how long and how difficult it is, as well as the size of the cast. A full-length ballet takes between five and six weeks from the first rehearsal to the first performance, whereas a one-act ballet may take as little as three weeks. Creating a new ballet is often more time consuming because the choreographer starts with a blank canvas, and often spends time work-shopping movements that may or may not end up in the finished ballet.

About a week before opening night, there’s a costume rehearsal so dancers can get a feel for their costumes and make any minor adjustments to their movements needed.

Next the dancers move into the theatre and begin to space the ballet to the size of the stage. During this time they’ll also become familiar with stage props and any limitations scenery may impose on their dancing.

There are normally two dress rehearsals for every ballet, the day before opening night. The Australian Ballet schedules them on the same day so that they can prepare two casts. During the dress rehearsals, dancers dance in full costume and with sets and lighting, accompanied by the orchestra for the first time. It’s a very important time, because this is the artistic teams first opportunity to see their production in its complete form – hopefully just as they imagined it would be!

The day of opening night there’s a special rehearsal which is attended by the artistic director and his ballet staff, the choreographer and his collaborators, the stage manager and some production staff, and the conductor and rehearsal pianist.

Dancers are given corrections based on dress rehearsals and there’s the last-minute opportunity to fix any problems. Then its time to relax for a few ours and prepare for the evening’s premiere.