With the announcement of his first season as artistic director of the Queensland Ballet (QB), Li Cunxin has made his position clear. His company will be a classical ballet company, pure and simple. Modern-day adaptations of period works or post-punk, way-out contemporary will be handled with extreme caution. His 2013 program is all about the success of tradition.
First up is Cinderella, a production choreographed by Ben Stevenson, the artistic director of the Houston Ballet in the US, where Cunxin spent most of his career in the West. Mid-year comes Giselle, a production created for the Houston Ballet by the Australian Ballet’s guest teacher and coach, Ai-Gul Gaisina. And at the end of the year Cunxin has scheduled the Christmas ballet of The Nutcracker.
For many, the first word that might spring to mind when viewing Cunxin’s first repertoire is “safe”. With the exception of the “Elegance” season, all the works are tried and tested classical favourites. “Others may think that my program is ‘safe’,” he responds, ”but I certainly don’t think so. I think classical ballets are the most difficult and most challenging. To do them well and to move the audience, our dancers will be pushed and challenged to the limit."
“It’s really driven by the audiences,” he adds. “They want to see the classics. And dancers today find the technique as challenging as when first created. We push the boundaries with the technique and the production. That is how we keep [the classics] alive.” . . .
This is an edited extract from an article by Karen van Ulzen in the December/January issue of Dance Australia. For the full story, buy NOW or subscribe via our homepage!
Li Cunxin. Photo: Christian Aas.
