Changing
Guard of the
A Q&A with Ballet Pensacola’s New Artistic Director, Darren
A
McIntyre
by Morgan Cole
photo by Jessica Kaminski
s Ballet Pensacola prepares to enter its 2021–2022 season, the company is honored to welcome newly appointed artistic director Darren McIntyre. Originally from Australia, McIntyre has produced more than 30 original works and has restaged and coached several full-length traditional repertory ballets. He has toured extensively across the globe in places such as the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and South America. Recognized by the American Guild of Musical Artists as an Artist of Extraordinary Ability, McIntyre is also the founder and artistic director of the Marianne McIntyre Memorial International Ballet Scholarship. McIntyre is excited to bring his artistic vision to Ballet Pensacola and the community and looks forward to his first season as artistic director. Downtown Crowd had the chance to catch up with McIntyre during his first week on the job to learn a little more about his artistic vision for the future of Ballet Pensacola. DTC: How long have you been involved with ballet and dance and when did you first become interested in dance and choreography?
DM: Originally from Glen Innes NSWAustralia, I spent most of my childhood growing up in Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast and kind of always knew I wanted to be a professional dancer ever since I took my first dance class when I was 10 years old. I loved it from the very first day. It is hard to explain, but dance was me and I had to dance. It was like it chose me. I also had a huge passion for languages and was studying German at the time. After completing one year abroad in Germany through the STS International Exchange program (when I was 18 | DOWNTOWNCROWD.COM
15 years old), I was selected to attend the internationally acclaimed Prix de Lausanne (1996), which is the world’s largest youth ballet competition, equivalent to the Olympics. There, I was approached by the late Gailene Stock CBE AM who invited me to audition for The Australian Ballet School (TABS). As per her suggestion, I successfully auditioned and moved to Melbourne to start my training with TABS (1997). Whilst at TABS I was honored to be the recipient of The Sir Robert Helpmann Bursary and The Dame Peggy Van Praagh Award for Choreography. I was also fortunate to perform in their productions of The Snow Queen (1997) and The Red Shoes (1998) by Petal Miller Ashmole as well as worked with The Australian Ballet Company in Natalia Makarova’s
La Bayadere and Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote (1999). I graduated, receiving my Advanced Diploma of Dance in 1999. As a professional dancer, choreographer and guest teacher, I have toured extensively throughout the United States, Australia, Asia, Canada, Europe, Mexico and South America, performing a wide range of both classical and contemporary works as a freelance artist with companies such as The National Ballet of Ireland, The Landestheater Detmold in Germany, Louisville Ballet in Kentucky, City Ballet of San Diego, Milwaukee Ballet and Ajkun Ballet Theatre in New York City. I also love theatre and recently was a street performer with New York City’s
Experience, The Ride and was honored to be featured as an original cast member in the world premiere and the first Australian Tour of the new Australian hit production, BANJO (in the role of Banjo Paterson).
DTC: What made you decide to become an artistic director after spending so many years as an awardwinning dancer and choreographer?
DM: Having been an artist myself for most of my lifetime, I regard dance as a transient mode of expression, a language of its own, one with infinite progression and purpose. It is incredibly inspiring to be a part of a creative world and industry that is consistently bringing positivity, imagination and edifying values to the forefront of our society. I am very enthusi-
