Because The Australian Ballet’s Nijinsky opened in Melbourne I didn’t review it for The Australian – my colleague Eamonn Kelly did the honours. I did, however, travel from Sydney to be the opening – how not? – and wrote about it for arts magazine Limelight. You can read that review here. And below are a few more images from this beautiful production – designed by choreographer John Neumeier – which I will see again in Sydney with different casts and without doubt write about again.

The expectation had been that AB principal Kevin Jackson, who featured strongly in all the publicity, would head the opening night cast. In the event Neumeier, artistic director of Hamburg Ballet, gave that honour to a longtime member of his company and a man much experienced in the role, Alexandre Riabko. Jackson danced the role of Vaslav at the second performance.

It’s always fascinating to see a company through new eyes. The really intriguing casting is that of Jake Mangakahia, who dances in the third cast as Vaslav. In fact, he should be just about taking the curtain calls after his debut performance as I write this on Saturday afternoon. Mangakahia is still in the corps de ballet and recently took two years off to undertake missionary work. He rejoined the company this year and has obviously lost none of the promise he had shown before taking his sabbatical. To be given this hugely demanding role in a ballet so close to Neumeier’s heart says much about his talent.