The Australian Ballet

With the huge success of its tours to Europe and Asia, The Australian Ballet continues to hold its place among the elite of international ballet. With an ever-developing repertoire, the company is recognised as a major creative force, producing remarkable new versions of classic ballets and inviting the cream of contemporary choreographers to produce exciting new work.

Askonas Holt collaborated with The Australian Ballet for the first time in 2005, bringing Graeme Murphy’s powerful reworking of Swan Lake to Wales Millennium Centre and the London Coliseum – for which The Australian Ballet was named “Best Foreign Dance Company” in the UK’s National Dance Awards. The company returned in October 2008 for further performances of Rites at Sadler’s Wells (in partnership with Bangarra Dance Theatre), and Swan Lake at The Lowry in Salford.

The Australian Ballet opened the 2015 NCPA Dance Festival in Beijing with further performances of Swan Lake and a Gala Programme featuring the choreography of Serge Lifar, Stephen Baynes and Twyla Tharp. The company then continued to Shanghai, to present Alexei Ratmansky’s spectacular production of Cinderella at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Subsequently, the company returned to China in 2018 for acclaimed performances of David McAllister’s The Sleeping Beauty in Beijing and Shanghai, and of Maina Gielgud’s Giselle in Nanjing.

During the summer of 2016, Askonas Holt – in partnership with Raymond Gubbay Limited – was thrilled to present The Australian Ballet once again at the London Coliseum, with the performances of Swan Lake and Cinderella greeted enthusiastically by critics and audiences alike.

2023 sees the company celebrate its 60th anniversary, and we are delighted to be bringing The Australian Ballet to Covent Garden in August to perform Jewels, in an exciting new era for the company with David Hallberg as Artistic Director. This will be the company’s first return to Covent Garden in 35 years.