The Australian Ballet’s unique style of dancing has developed throughout the history of the company and continues to do so. Its blend of influences comes from the ballet staff and visiting guest dancers, teachers and choreographers around the world.

David McAllister AM
Artistic Director
A graduate of The Australian Ballet School, Perth-born David McAllister began his training with Evelyn Hodgkinson and joined The Australian Ballet in 1983. He was promoted to Senior Artist in 1986 and to Principal Artist in January 1989.

His principal roles have included those in Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, The Sentimental Bloke, Coppélia, Manon, La Sylphide, Sinfonietta and Stepping Stones.

In 1985 he won a Bronze Medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow and the same year won the Oceanic Equity Arts Award for Young Achievers in Perth.  As a result of the Moscow Competition he was invited to return to the USSR as a guest artist and made numerous appearances with the Bolshoi Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, the Georgian State Ballet and other companies in Don Quixote, Giselle and in gala performances.

In 1989 he was guest artist with The National Ballet of Canada alternating in the roles of Mercutio and Benvolio in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet and in Etudes and The Four Temperaments.  He has also been a guest artist with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Singapore Dance Theatre.  In London in 1992, he took part in the Royal Gala performance of Coppélia in the presence of the Princess of Wales.

In 1997, David danced in several premiere ballets: In the Upper Room, Theme and Variations and Cinderella, and in 1998 in La Bayadére and 1914.  A highlight of 1999 was the opening night of Don Quixote in Shanghai.  In 2000 he performed the role of Doctor/Beloved Officer in Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker and recreated his 1993 ABC Television simulcast role of Camille in The Merry Widow.

David has worked as a guest teacher with The Australian Ballet School, The Dancers Company, the Royal Academy of Dancing, the Cecchetti Society, Australian Institute of Classical Dance and at various summer schools.  In November 2000, he completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts and Entertainment Management at Deakin University.

David McAllister danced for the final time in Giselle on 24 March 2001 at the Sydney Opera House and became Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet in July 2001. He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2004 Australia Day Honours List.

Mark Kay
Ballet Master and Choreologist
Mark Kay decided to take up the profession of choreologist after studying Benesh Movement Notation at The Australian Ballet School. In 1986 he went to London to complete the notation course at the Benesh Institute and while there notated and worked with choreographer Gillian Lynne on the musical The Phantom of the Opera. He joined The Royal Ballet as a freelance notator in 1987 under the directorship of Anthony Dowell and worked on Wayne Eagling’s Beauty and the Beast and Dowell’s Swan Lake.

After a twelve-month repose in Australia, Mark returned to London in 1988 to work for English National Ballet, directed by Peter Schaufuss. During his five years with the company he performed, notated, and worked with many choreographers and directors, including Peter Schaufuss, Ronald Hynd, Kenneth MacMillan, Nicholas Beriozoff, Ben Stevenson and Ivan Nagy.

As a freelancer, Mark has staged Peter Schaufuss’ Nutcracker for the Graz Oper Ballett in Austria in 1992, Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1994 and for The Royal Ballet in 2001, and taught Christopher Wheeldon’s Continuum© for Dutch National Ballet (2005) and Zurich Ballet (2006).

In 1993 then Artistic Director Maina Gielgud invited Mark to join The Australian Ballet as the company’s choreologist, where he continues to notate and stage ballet, as well as perform character roles such as Sancho Panza in Don Quixote. For The Dancers Company, he has been responsible for teaching, staging, and recently performing the role of The Head Mistress in Graduation Ball.

Noelle Shader
Ballet Mistress and Rehabilitation Facilitator
Noelle Shader was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and emigrated to the United States, where she studied at the School of American Ballet in New York City. She was one of the last intakes into the school under Balanchine’s direction.

In 1976 Noelle joined the New York City Ballet and remained with the company until 1981. Emigrating to Australia, Noelle worked as a classical dance lecturer at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with Dame Peggy van Praagh, and in 1984 assumed the position of Ballet Mistress with the West Australian Ballet under the direction of Barry Moreland.

In 1989 she joined The Australian Ballet as Ballet Mistress under the direction of Maina Gielgud. After six years she returned to freelance work as a full-time classical dance lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts; restaging choreographic works and teaching in the larger dance community.

She rejoined The Australian Ballet as Ballet Mistress in 1997 at the invitation of then Artistic Director Ross Stretton and continues as Ballet Mistress and Dance Rehabilitator for the company under Artistic Director David McAllister. Over the years, Noelle has been involved in the premieres of many ballets now in the company’s repertoire, including Nutcracker, Divergence, Rites, Bella Figura, Requiem and Madame Butterfly and has enjoyed working with great artists, choreographers and directors.

Noelle has been a dance panel member for the Department of the Arts (WA) and the Australia Council, and has choreographed works for West Australian Ballet and for the Festival of Perth. In 2003 Noelle was awarded a Centenary Medal.

Fiona Tonkin
Principal Coach and Ballet Mistress
Fiona Tonkin began her career in Wellington where she joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1979. Her association with The Australian Ballet began in 1980 when Marilyn Jones invited her to join the company. By 1987 she had become a Principal Artist, renowned for her interpretative artistry, classicism and technical versatility. Upon her retirement in 1993, she had danced almost every major female role in the company’s repertoire.

Career highlights with The Australian Ballet include her performances at the Royal Opera House, the Kirov Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera House and opening the company’s 1992 London Coliseum season as Giselle. She appeared as a Guest Artist with the Kirov Ballet in Swan Lake, on Rudolf Nureyev’s Farewell Tour, and danced lead roles in the ABC TV broadcasts of La Fille mal gardée and Romeo and Juliet. In 1988 a scholarship enabled her to work with Stuttgart Ballett and Yvette Chauviré in Paris. Fiona received Green Room Awards in 1988 and 1989.

Fiona returned to New Zealand in 1994 where she completed a Bachelor of Arts at Canterbury University while guest teaching in New Zealand and Australia. In 1999 she completed The Australian Ballet School’s Professional Dance Teachers Course and was awarded the Australian Multicultural Foundation Scholarship.

In 2000 Artistic Director Matz Skoog appointed her Rehearsal Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. She continued to work with Skoog in London as Assistant Artistic Director of the English National Ballet in 2002 and returned there as Guest Repetiteur in June and July of 2003. Fiona has worked with many choreographers including Stanton Welch, Mark Morris, Christopher Hampson and Mark Baldwin. Fiona returned to The Australian Ballet in 2003 at the invitation of David McAllister.

Wendy Walker
Ballet Mistress
Wendy Walker studied ballet with Joanne Priest before attending The Australian Ballet School on a Commonwealth Scholarship. After graduating in 1969 she joined The Australian Ballet. During this time Sir Frederick Ashton worked with the company and she danced the Polka in his Façade and Autumn Fairy in Cinderella. She also worked with Butler, Tudor and Massine and was promoted to Senior Soloist. In 1975 and 1976 she danced with London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), creating a role in Hynd’s The Sanguine Fan.

In 1978 a Churchill Fellowship enabled her to undertake a Benesh Notation course at The Institute of Choreology in London. During this time she notated for Sir Kenneth MacMillan on the film Nijinsky; attended a choreographic seminar conducted by Glen Tetley; studied with John O’Brien; and observed classes at The Royal Ballet School. Her final project involved notating a new work by Hans van Manen for Nederlands Dans Theater after which she spent a brief period working with Peter Wright at Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet.

Upon the completion of her studies, Wendy worked as a choreologist with American Ballet Theatre in New York working with many different choreographers including Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, Mats Ek, Mark Morris and Paul Taylor and was responsible for the maintaining of their works in ABT’s repertoire. She has also staged several classical and contemporary works, including Balanchine’s Bourrée Fantasque and Symphonie Concertante, MacMillan’s Concerto, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Manon, and Makarova’s La Bayadère Act 2. In 1984 Mikhail Baryshnikov promoted her to Ballet Mistress. Wendy has been a guest repetiteur for the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and for the Vienna State Opera Ballet.

In 1994 Wendy returned to The Australian Ballet as Ballet Mistress. She has since particularly enjoyed working on ballets by Nacho Duato, William Forsythe and Stephen Baynes. She assisted Stephen with the staging of his ballet Beyond Bach for The Royal Ballet in London in January 2002. In 2003 Wendy Walker was awarded the Centenary Medal for her services to Dance in Australia.

Danilo Radojevic
Associate Artistic Director
Danilo Radojevic, a dancer with a dynamic style and exceptional technical skill, catapulted to international status at the age of nineteen when he won the Gold Medal at the 1977 International Ballet Competition in Moscow, the only Australian to win this prestigious award throughout the Moscow competition’s long history.

Soon after, Danilo left The Australian Ballet to become a Soloist with American Ballet Theatre in New York. He remained with the company for fifteen years, visiting his homeland in 1978 and 1979 with Stars of the World Ballet and in 1991 with Rudolf Nureyev’s last tour. Danilo was promoted to Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theatre by Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1981 and performed the leading roles in many of the classics, often alternating with Baryshnikov himself.

After retiring from dancing, Danilo taught at American Ballet Theatre, New York Dance Studios and leading universities in California, gaining a reputation as an outstanding technical coach. He returned to join the ballet staff of The Australian Ballet in 1997 at the invitation of former Artistic Director Ross Stretton. Danilo was appointed Associate Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet in July 2001.

RESIDENT CHOREOGRAPHERS

Stephen Baynes
Resident Choreographer
Adelaide-born Stephen Baynes trained with Joanne Priest and graduated from The Australian Ballet School in 1975. He joined The Australian Ballet the following year and left in 1981 to join the Stuttgart Ballet. He returned to The Australian Ballet in 1985 and was promoted to Soloist in 1992.

Stephen’s extraordinary talent as a choreographer was first unveiled in 1986 with Strauss Songs, a work created for a company choreographic workshop. Then in 1988, for The Australian Ballet’s 25th Anniversary Choreographic Competition, Stephen presented the winning work Ballade, after which the work entered The Australian Ballet repertoire and was performed that season. Also in 1988, Stephen received the Qantas Youth Award for professional development, enabling him to travel overseas to experience various works of Europe’s major choreographers.

Stephen Baynes’ first commissioned work for The Australian Ballet, Catalyst, premiered in 1990 and toured nationally. It was performed on the 1992 tour of London where it received a nomination for Best Dance Production at the Laurence Olivier Awards and again in 1994 on the company’s tour of the United States.

In 1995 Stephen Baynes was appointed Resident Choreographer with The Australian Ballet and later that year was awarded the Kelvin Coe Memorial Scholarship. His commissioned works for that year included Episodes for La Scala Ballet, Milan, and Beyond Bach, which received its world premiere in Melbourne. Stephen also created a work for Sydney Dance Company, Into Dharma, which premiered in May 1996. In June Shadow in the Facet, set to music by Ravel, was given its world premiere by The Australian Ballet.

In 1997 Stephen Baynes was commissioned to create a work on The Australian Ballet for the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts. That work, At the edge of night, was televised on ABC Television. In 1998 his first full-length work, 1914, premiered in Sydney with The Australian Ballet. In 1999, At the edge of night made its international debut and received critical acclaim in New York and Washington on The Australian Ballet’s US tour. Stephen has had works commissioned by the Queensland Ballet (The Fold, 1999), West Australian Ballet (Into the Darkness, 1996; Lachrimae, 2000) and last year by Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and New York City Ballet. He also restaged Beyond Bach for The Royal Ballet.

In 2000, Stephen Baynes created Personal Best for The Australian Ballet, which premiered as part of the Olympic Arts Festival, and Requiem, which premiered in Adelaide in 2001. In 2003 in Melbourne, Stephen premiered Molto Vivace, for which he received the Betty Pounder Award for Original Choreography.

In 2004 Stephen presented two new works created on The Australian Ballet’s elite dancers: Imaginary Masque and Unspoken Dialogues as part of the Southern Lights trilogy. The trilogy also included El Tango, a re-worked piece that Stephen premiered with Pacific Northwest Ballet in the US in 2002.

Last year Unspoken Dialogues received the Helpmann Award for Best Choreography, with Steven Heathcote and Justine Summers also awarded for their performances. In May of this year the work was performed in London in a programme to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of The Royal Ballet.

Stanton Welch
Resident Choreographer
Stanton Welch was born in Melbourne, Australia.  In 1986 he commenced his dance training and in 1989 he was engaged as a dancer with The Australian Ballet.  His choreographic career developed during his time as a soloist with The Australian Ballet and in 1990 their first choreographic commission marked the beginning of a series of commissioned works over the next eleven years with this Company, exposing Welch’s diverse choreographic style.

In 1990 Welch created a A Time to Dance for the Dancers Company and Three of Us for The Australian Ballet. Of Blessed Memory (1991) was performed throughout Australia and in The Australian Ballet’s 1992 overseas tour to Italy and the UK.  For this ballet Stanton was voted Best New Choreographer in London for 1992 by readers of the British magazine Dance & Dancers. That same year he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study choreography overseas; and he won the NSW Young Achiever Award.   In 1993 he created Before the Rain for the Dancers Company tour.  Divergence (1994) premiered with The Australian Ballet and later formed part of an Australian Triple Bill performed in Washington in their 1995 United States tour.

In 1995 his Madame Butterfly received its world premiere with The Australian Ballet and Stanton was appointed one of the two Resident Choreographers.  That same year he was commissioned to create Corroboree for The Australian Ballet to perform at ’UNited we Dance’ in San Francisco. Welch also choreographed Many Colours Blue for the Dancers Company Tour.  In 1996 Stanton made his choreographic debut with San Francisco Ballet who commissioned him to create Maninyas. He returned to The Australian Ballet to create Red Earth, also televised live in a gala performance as part of a Triple Bill.  In 1997 his Cinderella premiered in the opening of The Australian Ballet’s first season in Melbourne. 1988 Engagements took Stanton away from Australia to choreograph new works in Europe and Britain, making debuts with Royal Danish Ballet with a new pas de deux, Ønsket; and Birmingham Royal Ballet with a new one act ballet, Powder.

2000 was a year mostly spent in America with the exception of Moscow, where on Boxing Day he made his debut with Green, a new One Act Ballet for Nina Ananiashvili and Principles of the Bolshoi Ballet in a special season created to showcase new works; and London, where he staged A Time To Dance for the Royal Ballet School.  2001 Welch returned to Moscow to create a new One Act Ballet for Ms Ananiashvili’s group before returning to Atlanta Ballet to stage Wild Life (previously entitled Corroboree).  In Toronto, Stanton made his debut with the National Ballet Company of Canada with his production of Madame Butterfly.

During 2002 Stanton continued as Resident Choreographer for The Australian Ballet and in July he became Artistic Associate for Ballet Met, Columbus, Ohio; and currently, he is Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet, Texas. In August of 2003 Stanton’s new work Velocity was given its world premiere by The Australian Ballet in Melbourne, while 2005 saw the world premiere of his The Sleeping Beauty, a collaboration with the late Kristian Fredrikson.