Summertime At the Ballet

The Australian Ballet is back performing with its highly-anticipated Summertime at the Ballet, at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena

The dancers of The Australian Ballet will be back in the spotlight this February with the long-awaited Summertime at the Ballet, marking the company’s first performances after almost a year off stage, and the launch of a new era under David Hallberg’s directorship. Summertime at the Ballet will be staged between 25 – 28 February exclusively at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena; it’s the first time the company has performed at the venue.

Curated by The Australian Ballet’s new Artistic Director, David Hallberg, Summertime at the Ballet is a stunning display of ballet highlights throughout the centuries and will be a spectacle of impressive proportions. The artistry and versatility of the company’s dancers will shine in a selection from ballet’s most celebrated classics, new contemporary works and signature repertoire chosen to delight ballet lovers and new audiences alike.

The Summertime at the Ballet program will include excerpts from Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère, Tim Harbour’s Filigree and Shadow, Steven Baynes’ Molto Vivace, George Balanchine’s Themes and Variations, Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote, Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow, Alice Topp’s Logos and Lucas Jervies’ Spartacus. It will also feature Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.

A perfect night out for families, dance-lovers, as well as those seeing ballet for the first time, Summertime at the Ballet, offers something for everyone at an accessible price point. The classics will take audiences on a journey through lavish early 20th-century Paris, with 20 dancers waltzing across the stage in The Merry Widow; to soul-stirring Spain, as two principal artists perform the technically demanding Act III pas de deux from Don Quixote; then to intoxicating India, where 24 dancers in white tutus will appear to float in the ethereal Kingdom of the Shades scene from La Bayadère. Audiences will be dazzled by the sumptuous costumes customary to traditional ballets.

Lovers of modern work will revel in the contemporary whip-fast choreography of Filigree and Shadow, performed to electro music by 48nord, and the raw emotion of a pas de deux from the newest work in the program, Alice Topp’s 2020 ballet Logos, set to a score by Ludovico Einaudi.