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  • 50 Years of The Australian BalletOur history in moments and pictures: browse the decades or search for your favourites
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50 Years Of The Australian Ballet
  • Browse through the decades; search for a ballet, person or event; or dive right in through the spotlight.

    • 2010s
    • 2000s
    • 1990s
    • 1980s
    • 1970s
    • 1960s
  • Some of the text in The Australian Ballet timeline is adapted from essays in Luminous. These were written by Valerie Lawson (The Sixties), Jill Sykes (The Seventies), Lee Christofis (The Eighties), Michael Shmith (The Nineties) and Deborah Jones (The New Millennium).

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All of
The Royal Ballet


Natalia Makarova arrives in Australia to stage her version of La Bayadère.

February 1998

Artistic Director Ross Stretton announces he will be leaving The Australian Ballet.

March 2000

Robert Helpmann rises from his hospital bed to play the role of the frail, beleaguered Red King in Checkmate.

6 May 1986

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev arrive to guest with The Australian Ballet in Swan Lake and Giselle.

April 1964

Rudolf Nureyev, the explosive superstar recently defected from the Soviet Union, arrives in Sydney.

December 1962

Peggy van Praagh returns to Australia to take up the directorship of the new company.

June 1962




Celebrating 50 Years Of The Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet Telstra


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