The Australian Ballet’s 60^th anniversary celebrations came to a close in Sydney with Swan Lake and with promotions for 16 dancers – about 20 per cent of the company. TAB ended 2023 with 67 dancers although that number will increase to 77 when three new soloists and seven new corps de ballet members join next year.

Swan Lake was a lucky ballet for many of those promoted, as well as imposing a heavy workload. It was the main event in artistic director David Hallberg’s programming for the company’s milestone and was seen in four cities: Melbourne, where it opened on September 19, then Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. It clocked up close to 60 performances if you include dress rehearsals. TAB also managed to fit in a Frederick Ashton double bill (Marguerite and Armand, The Dream) between the Brisbane and Sydney seasons of Swan Lake. It’s a busy company.

Hallberg’s belief that a new, traditional production would be just the ticket this year wasn’t perhaps the most risky of bets but it certainly paid off. Swan Lake sold out everywhere, of course, but a better mark of success is how the company looked. 

Hallberg was a danseur noble of rare distinction and his influence is visible. There was a noticeably higher level of classical refinement through the ranks and everywhere you looked there were corps de ballet dancers impressing in demi-soloist and soloist roles. Or even principal roles, if you were corps member Maxim Zenin.

Zenin was a tender Siegfried to principal Robyn Hendricks’s Odette/Odile. Coryphée Misha Barkidjija also danced Siegfried with great beauty, first with principal Sharni Spencer in Melbourne and then with senior artist Rina Nemoto in Sydney (I saw Barkidjija in Melbourne; my review of those Arts Centre performances is here). 

Both Barkidjija and Zenin were elevated to soloist by Hallberg in the end-of-year promotions. It was a double promotion for Zenin. Another promotion worthy of note is that of Cameron Holmes. Like Zenin he leaped over the rank of coryphée to go from corps de ballet to soloist. His crazy-brave Mercutio in Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet was one of the best performances of 2022. There were eight promotions from corps de ballet to coryphée.

The soloist rank will be enlarged further next year with three more dancers joining the company from outside. Mia Heathcote and Victor Estévez, both principal artists with Queensland Ballet, have accepted soloist positions with TAB. Brazilian Davi Ramos joins from Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam. They will bring the soloist cohort to 15, the largest number in a long time. 

There is one new senior artist (the rank below principal artist). Yuumi Yamada’s elevation was something of a foregone conclusion after her assumption of big leading roles this year, including Kitri in Don Quixote and Odette/Odile.

Hallberg promoted both Marcus Morelli and Jill Ogai to principal artist after their leading performances on December 16. As is now the delightful custom at TAB, Hallberg came onstage at the curtain call and made his surprise announcement to a packed house. Hallberg not only rewarded two exceptional dancers, he satisfyingly replenished the company’s top rank after this year’s retirements of Adam Bull, Amber Scott and Amy Harris, each after a mammoth 22-year career.

Morelli has razor-sharp technique and looks a dream in roles that need the bravura touch, such as Ashton’s Puck. Morelli is also an alert, sensitive actor and no matter what the role he draws the eye. The same is true of Ogai. She seems to have her own special spotlight, all the better to illuminate a personality that radiates joy accompanied by a lovely dash of good old-fashioned glamour. 

The dancers came out of Swan Lake well. What of the production? 

Hallberg has repeatedly said he wanted a Swan Lake that will last for decades. In a way it already has, based as it is on Anne Woolliams’s fondly remembered version made in 1977 and last performed in 1997. It stays close to the Petita-Ivanov model from 1895 that’s the source of all traditional stagings. There are no social, historical or political themes draped over the narrative. It is what it is.

Hallberg’s contribution to this “reimagined” production was as instigator and director. He dived into the archive and resurrected the choreography created by Woolliams and Ray Powell. Choreographer Lucas Jervies was brought in to augment Woolliams’s choreography and act as dramaturg, the second role achieved less successfully than the first. There were gorgeous new costume designs from Mara Blumenfeld, including the prettiest dresses imaginable for the gentry in Act I and dazzlingly white tutus for the swans that sparkled as if still carrying drops of water from the lake. 

One or two things cry out for further attention but there’s a lot to be happy about. The choice of the Woolliams staging as the foundation was a masterstroke. Hallberg isn’t a choreographer but he knows a lot of them. He could have had someone come in and do their own thing. Instead he found this existing version, one that was part of the company’s history, and had it redesigned and built on. It would become his production with the earlier one, now nearly 50 years old, as a kind of palimpsest. 

On the debit side the sorceror’s role is underwritten. I saw four Rothbarts and only senior artist Jarryd Madden, a highly effective actor, managed to impose himself on the role. As for the ending, it simply doesn’t fit with what Tchaikovsky’s music tells us. There’s an anti-climactic exit for Odette, a melodramatic one for Siegfried and a final gathering of swans that looks attractive and says nothing.  

Still, if Hallberg is right and this production lasts and lasts, there will be plenty of tweaking time.