DAVID HALLBERG

Formerly the American star of the international ballet world, David Hallberg may have left the stage to become the artistic director of The Australian Ballet but as the institution celebrates its 60th year on stage, he’s ready to lead.

There was a time when David Hallberg loved the spotlight. The American star of the international ballet world was for many years in demand from Europe to America, performing with stellar companies including American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Royal Ballet in London.

“When you’re a dancer, it’s all about you. It’s about your performance that night, how your body feels, how you fuel your body—you’re the one in the spotlight,” Hallberg says.

Now all that has changed. But while Hallberg may have retired from his career as a professional dancer, he is instead the one responsible for training the spotlight on an entire company as the eighth artistic director of The Australian Ballet. Having taken the helm in 2021, it is Hallberg’s vision that audiences will see rolled out across the nation’s stages this year; the 60th anniversary year for the 75-strong company of dancers. And Hallberg couldn’t be happier.

“The year is big, but it’s also a year I know audiences are ready for, and dancers are ready for,” he says. “My goal is to make The Australian Ballet as relevant as possible to today, relevant to audiences, relevant repertoire, so when the curtain goes up you see a living, breathing artform. And it’s the beauty and history of this artform that I really believe in and want to uphold.”

Whether you lean towards the more traditional, classical end of the spectrum or the edgier contemporary works, there is plenty on the program, from revitalised productions of Swan Lake and Don Quixote to George Balanchine’s fiendishly exacting, globally sought-after work Jewels. There are two world premieres from two of the freshest young choreographic voices working in Australia today: The Australian Ballet resident choreographer Alice Topp and Australian Dance Theatre artistic director Daniel Riley.

It is all part of the Hallberg vision which, after two years in a Covid-interrupted world, he is finally having a chance to unveil; one that honours an artform with deep historical roots while ensuring its continued relevance in our evolving society.

The country’s second-oldest classical ballet company (West Australian Ballet was founded in 1952), The Australian Ballet began in 1962 under the guidance of former dancer and ballet mistress Peggy van Praagh. It featured founding members who would later become some of the nation’s best dancers, Marilyn Jones, Garth Welch and Kathleen Gorham among them.

Hallberg has his own profound history with the company. He quietly relocated to Australia in 2015 to rehabilitate with its world-leading medical team, after suffering career-threatening complications from an ankle injury. Hallberg spent 14 months in Melbourne rehabbing with the company’s internationally respected physiotherapist Dr Sue Mayes, who ultimately helped save his career. In return, Hallberg became the company’s first resident guest artist in 2017 and committed to return to Australia to perform with them annually, gaining a great understanding of and friendship with The Australian Ballet in the process.

Replacing former company dancer-turned-artistic director David McAllister, who stepped down in 2020 after two decades, Hallberg says he was brought in to capitalise on his international experience and contacts and to “sharpen things up”. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to completely dump everything and start all over again [but] be conscious of the balance,” the 40-yearold says. “Some people may think ‘Swan Lake again?’ and want a new creation, whereas others come to the ballet because they know they’re going to get a beautiful production of Swan Lake. It’s really important to balance the two and not veer too far in one direction.”

Working with a new executive team—British conductor and music director Jonathan Lo succeeds Nicolette Fraillon and former Bangarra Dance Theatre executive director Lissa Twomey has taken over from Libby Christie—Hallberg is excited to unveil his vision for the company’s diamond anniversary. “It’s meant to invigorate, it’s meant to challenge, but it’s also meant to bring enjoyment,” he says.

Determined to highlight The Australian Ballet’s strength in the classical “ballet” of its title, Hallberg hopes to honour the company’s rich history by reviving two of its signature works, Swan Lake and Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote. Hallberg firmly believes every ballet company needs its own production of Swan Lake, and while The Australian Ballet enjoyed huge success with Graeme Murphy’s 2002 contemporary take on the 1877 work, Hallberg sought out a more traditional production. “It’s the most famous ballet ever created and one that is still so valid in the classical repertoire,” he notes. He was delighted to discover in the archives the company’s own 1977 production, choreographed by Anne Woolliams and performed for 25 years, and will direct an updated production of Woolliams’ show featuring all new sets and costumes.

“Another thing that’s really important to me is that the repertoire doesn’t look like a museum piece, that we don’t date ourselves by just turning on the stage lights and bringing in a production that looks like a museum,” he says. The sizeable cost of the exquisite new design has been met through the generosity of no less than 800 donors following a targeted fundraising campaign.

It is in his determination to ensure classic works carry a fresh appeal that Hallberg is also reviving Don Quixote, a ballet developed for the stage but immortalised on screen in 1972 with The Australian Ballet by iconic dancer Rudolf Nureyev and director Sir Robert Helpmann. Filmed in a hangar at Essendon Airport, it became an international hit for the company. Hallberg will restage the original choreography but incorporate updated scenic design of the film’s set, including an on-stage screen.

“Rudolf Nureyev was one of the greatest dancers ever and created this film with the company that was so textured and full and busy and made audiences feel like they were in a plaza in Seville,” says Hallberg. “We’re replicating what was done and again, it’s [my duty] to ensure these productions aren’t museum pieces so when the curtain goes up we feel like we’re in Spain. That’s what makes the artform come alive.”

It is a sign of Hallberg’s international reputation that he was able to secure the carefully controlled rights to Jewels, choreographed by modern ballet master George Balanchine on the New York City Ballet in 1967. Requiring unwavering classical precision, Jewels is a notoriously difficult, widely acclaimed and opulently staged work, a threeact ballet created around the motifs of emeralds, rubies and diamonds. “Only the major companies around the world dance Jewels because of the sheer numbers the cast needs but also because of the technical difficulties of the choreography, the stylistic difficulties of the choreography,” Hallberg explains. “But I’ve just seen the first rehearsals and the dancers are so primed, they’re so ready and they’re so excited to dance the repertoire.”

Two other modern classics, Frederick Ashton’s The Dream and Marguerite and Armand will be performed as a double bill in Sydney, while The Tokyo Ballet will tour its Giselle to Melbourne.

From modern classics to contemporary ballets that have yet to be unveiled, Hallberg is particularly excited by Identity. A double bill, the commission sees resident choreographer Alice Topp and First Nations choreographer and artistic director Daniel Riley explore the concept of Australian identity. “One of my visions for the company before I even came in was that we have this platform. We’re the biggest dance company in the country and we have a huge responsibility to give opportunities to artists, to commission artists, not just choreographers, and to let them express their voice,” Hallberg says.

Topp’s work Paragon explores the identity of the company and its history by inviting beloved former dancers from various generations including Fiona Tonkin, Steven Heathcote, Marilyn Rowe, David McAllister, Madeleine Eastoe, Kirsty Martin, Lucinda Dunn, Paul Knobloch and others to join the current company in the new work.

Riley’s work, The Hum, looks at the relationship between audiences, performers and musicians and will be a collaboration with his company, Adelaidebased Australian Dance Theatre. A Wiradjuri man, Riley will collaborate with Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham and Taungurung designer Annette Sax, who will create new costumes.

This is only the second time The Australian Ballet will have collaborated with Indigenous creatives, after its landmark co-production with Bangarra Dance Theatre on Rites, which premiered in 1997. It is an important relationship Hallberg says he will nurture. “I’m a totally clean slate in Australia and I’m taking the temperature of what’s needed in the ballet world and in this company, what voices need to be represented,” he says. “It’s no accident we’re having proper and meaningful First Nations collaborations with Dan Riley and Deborah Cheetham, and that’s going to continue. This isn’t just a one-off.”

In its 60 years the company has evolved into a truer representation of multicultural Australia, with dancers hailing from Japan, China, New Zealand, England, South Africa, the US and Russia. Having worked with multiple international dance companies and cultures, Hallberg believes The Australian Ballet truly represents an Australian style of ballet. “It doesn’t inhabit the stylistic qualities of the Mariinsky or the Bolshoi or the Paris Opera Ballet, because we’re not 275 years old, and that’s fine,” he says. “The Australian Ballet has a really modern view on what ballet is today, because it doesn’t have the weight of history. So what the dancers and the company offer is human-ness, [they’re not] untouchable, ethereal artists from another planet, there’s an Australian quality, a culture of openness and warmth.”

Two years into the role, Hallberg says he feels he is only just getting started. “We cancelled almost our entire season in 2021 [because of Covid], we only did 63 performances of a planned 159. But... silver linings, I got to look inside, look at the company, work with the dancers. So when we were at full capacity of performances last year, with soldout shows of Romeo and Juliet, I could feel how the machine ticks. We’re all match-fit—the dancers of course—but as a director I feel so empowered by the vision and energy of this company.”

With Covid also playing havoc with every last one of Hallberg’s planned international farewell performances in 2020 (select audiences were lucky enough to catch him in Kunstkamer in Melbourne and Sydney last year), you would understand if there was an air of regret around his retirement. In fact, the opposite is true.

“When you stop performing it’s not about you anymore. I am sitting in the [driver’s] seat and it feels quite selfless, like a custodian, a father, a curator, a counsellor at times,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t miss the spotlight. I’m so happy to be watching these dancers, seeing how the repertoire helps them realise their potential even more; hearing audiences loved this or hated that. This is where I should be right now.” australianballet.com.au

Has acute lack of supply cast a safety net around the top end of the real estate market for the foreseeable future?

Here, three experts offer their take on the economic, cultural and psychological factors influencing the availability and pricing of Australia’s rarest residences.

— By Kirsten Craze

Despite the cooling climate across Australia’s mainstream residential market, the luxury segment is setting its own temperature. While there are several reasons why the top end performs at its own pace, the extremely tight supply of ultraexclusive property is a key driver.

Local luxury real estate volumes simply cannot keep up with the extraordinary demand from discerning buyers who want the best of the best—and have the funds to acquire it. In fact, Australia’s population of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) grew by 10.1 per cent in 2021 to 20,874 people, according to Knight Frank’s Australian Prime Residential Review for Q4 2022.

The headcount of Australian residents with a personal net worth of more than US$30m (A$43m) is forecast to grow by a further 30.9 per cent over the next five years, per the Knight Frank Wealthy Sizing Model.

Though capital growth for prime property (considered the top 5 per cent of residential prices), fell by 1.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2022, it was still up 6 per cent year on year. So, while real estate values across the board are recalibrating post-pandemic, the severe undersupply at the pointy end of the market is set to keep prices buoyant. In Melbourne, sales volumes decreased in the September quarter by 36.1 per cent to just 156 luxury properties, while in Sydney that figure trended down by 26 per cent to 705 homes.

Offering some insight into the current market drivers, Mark Browning, head of Property Service Group at NAB, says that Australia’s luxury property market runs its own race because it is not impacted by the same external economic factors as general real estate. “It’s really an independent market and is more influenced by executive salaries, share