Lorraine Blackbourn is a teacher and Cecchetti senior examiner who ran the Heidelberg Dance Ensemble (with dance historian Edward Pask), in Melbourne from 1978 to 1988. She was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia in this year's Australia Day honours list.

John O'Connell is best known as the choreographer for the films 'Moulin Rouge', 'Shall we Dance?' and 'Strictly Ballroom'. Apart from his film career, he is constantly in demand as a choreographer for musicals, theatre, commercials and video clips, and this year choreographed for the Oscars awards in Hollywood. He is the choreographer of 'Keating, the Musical', which is in the middle of an Australian tour, and also of 'The Rocky Horror Show', presently playing at Star City in Sydney.

Carlos Acosta was born the youngest of 11 children into a very poor family in Havana, Cuba. His father enrolled him in a ballet school to curb his wild spirit. He went on to win the Prix de Lausanne international competition in 1990, which launched his career, beginning with English National Ballet, Cuban National Ballet, Houston Ballet and now the Royal Ballet. He is appearing as a guest artist with the Australian Ballet in the Melbourne season of 'Jerome Robbins - a celebration'.

Jolene Slater is one of the principal dancers at the Moulin Rouge in Paris.

Mary Stirling is the long-time wardrobe manager at the West Australian Ballet.

Krzysztof Pastor is resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet. He has created many works for international companies, including a new interpretation of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique for the Australian Ballet’s upcoming double bill 'Destiny' - a tribute to choreographer Leonide Massine.

Frances Rings is artist-in-residence with Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Gina Brescianini is the winner of the 2006 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award. The annual award of $20,000 goes to a member of the Australian Ballet who is chosen out of six dancers nominated by the company.

Mathew Bourne is the choreographer of many imaginative new versions of classical ballets, such as 'The Car Man' ('Carmen'), 'Highland Fling' ('La Sylphide' set in a Glasgow Housing Project),'Cinderella' (set in London during WW2) and 'Nutcracker!' (set in a Dickensian orphanage). He has also choreographed for musicals such as 'Mary Poppins' (now playing on Broadway) and recently created 'Play Without Words', a dance version of Pinter's 'The Servant'...

Bruce Pollack has been the publicist for some of Australia's biggest theatrical events, including shows such as 'Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story', 'Cabaret', 'Cirque du Soleil' and the 'Edinburgh Military Tattoo'. In 2003 he closed his publicity company and formed Pollack Consulting, which covers the full spectrum of entertainment promotion. His company’s most recent campaigns include ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and the arena production of 'The Boy from Oz'.