The Australian Ballet is a classical ballet company with a uniquely Australian style of dancing that has developed throughout the history of the company and continues to develop today. Technically, it’s been refined by ballet staff members, visiting guest dancers, teachers, coaches and choreographers, who constantly challenge and inspire our dancers, while the company’s style has been shaped by myriad influences, including Australia’s love of sport and the great outdoors.
The company has four permanent teachers and several regular guest teachers on staff. Each one has a different dance background, both in training and professional experience, and each brings a wide range of skills and challenges to the company. No particular syllabus is used in training professional dancers, however the daily class follows the traditional order of barre work, centre practice, adagio and pirouettes, finishing with petit, medium and grand allegro.
The Australian Ballet’s teachers use daily class to prepare the dancers for their upcoming repertoire, as well as constantly working to refine their technique and artistic abilities. By balancing a dancer’s need to maintain technical proficiency with intellectual stimulation and emotional fulfillment, ballet staff aim to make dancers’ mastery of movement a source of enjoyment they can communicate to audiences.
The daily class is the mainstay of ballet companies around the world and is possibly the most important part of each dancer’s day.
