It’s been known for some time that Queensland Ballet is in financial difficulty. This week we discovered it is in the process of cutting staff from behind the scenes and within its company of about 60 dancers. 

It’s a heartbreaking reversal of fortune for the company remade and substantially expanded under the artistic directorship of Li Cunxin, who retired due to ill health at the end of 2023.

Firm information is hard to come by but will have to emerge at some point. I hear 12 dancers will go along with an unspecified number of other positions. Some will be voluntary redundancies and others not, one understands. Rumours abound but it’s all just gossip until QB confirms its position.

What I can say for certain is this. QB needs to look for one less dancer redundancy right now. 

The Royal Ballet’s website lists QB principal artist Patricio Revé as Romeo to Natalia Osipova’s Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet on May 5, May 10 and May 26. This is clearly a sensational opportunity for Revé, who would have come to the attention of stagers of the ballet in Brisbane just a few weeks ago.

He was opening night Romeo in Brisbane, having got the role under his belt in 2019 when the production was revived after its company premiere in 2014. He has also shone as Des Grieux in MacMillan’s Manon.

I didn’t see the R&J opening night this year but did see the lustrous Revé as Paris in the cast that starred RB principal artists Akane Takada and Calvin Richardson (March 26). I wrote that Revé was “super-luxury casting as Paris in this cast … Paris and Juliet have an important early dance together so the red carpet was clearly being laid down for Takada”.

I went on to comment that “Revé’s double duty, however, did show up the thinness in QB’s upper ranks. Where in recent years there were seven principal artists there are now five, and of that five, for various reasons only two appeared in Romeo & Juliet.”

Yes, the backstage turmoil was beginning to make itself felt on stage and news of redundancies followed hard on. 

Osipova was originally teamed with Marcelino Sambé for R&J. Sambé is injured and Revé is poised to enter the big league. Osipova is an extraordinary artist and one of the most exciting ballet stars in the world. Revé’s selection would have been carefully considered by the RB hierarchy.

It’s a stunning opportunity for the Cuban-born dancer who joined QB at Li Cunxin’s invitation in 2018. He was elevated to principal artist in 2022.

It’s not surprising that a British fan posting on a ballet site said they’d never heard of Revé although another said they were looking forward to the “rare opportunity”.

Do you think he’ll be returning to Brisbane after his shot on the RB stage? I’ll take any money he won’t and that it won’t be all that rare to see Revé dancing at the top level in the northern hemisphere from here on.

You heard it here first.