Queensland Ballet has announced the creative artists for its 2026 Bespoke season, revealing a line-up that reflects a clear shift towards broader collaboration and a more open invitation to artists across the country.
Under Artistic Director Ivan Gil-Ortega, this year’s program was developed through a national call-out for new ideas, inviting choreographers to propose works that push at the boundaries of movement, music and design. From that process, three concepts were selected, to be realised by choreographers Claire Voss, Victor Zarallo and Daniel Jaber.
“Part of my vision is to give all choreographers and designers the opportunity to create and collaborate,” Gil-Ortega said. “When artists from different disciplines come together, it sparks new ideas and allows bold new voices to emerge.”
The model draws on a lineage of choreographic development within ballet, where mentorship and opportunity have historically shaped generations of artists. Gil-Ortega references this tradition directly, positioning Bespoke not simply as a presentation platform, but as a space for artistic growth and exchange within a contemporary context.
Each choreographer will work in close partnership with a composer, forming the backbone of three distinct creative teams. Voss will collaborate with Connor D’Netto, whose work is known for balancing rhythmic complexity with lyricism and blending classical and electronic influences. Zarallo joins forces with Brady Watkins, whose practice spans theatre and visual media, while Jaber will collaborate with Luke Peacock, a Meriam artist whose work crosses contemporary music and community-driven practice.
Together, these partnerships point to a program that is as much about sound and environment as it is about movement, with each work developing through an integrated creative process rather than a traditional choreographic hierarchy.
The expanded creative teams extend into design. Costume designers Bethany Cordwell and Michelle Potts will shape the visual identity of the works, bringing contrasting approaches that range from high-concept, internationally recognised design to environmentally conscious, slow-fashion practices. Lighting designers Anthony Lee and Matthew Allan, with decades of experience across theatre and live performance, will further define the atmosphere and spatial language of the season.
Individually, the selected choreographers bring distinct trajectories. Voss, a French-born artist with more than 18 years’ experience, has built a practice that merges classical vocabulary with contemporary ideas of form and meaning. Zarallo’s career spans performance, teaching and choreography, with a deep engagement in physicality and artistic expression. Jaber, who recently worked alongside Garry Stewart on Elastic Hearts, returns to Queensland Ballet with an established relationship to the company’s dancers and creative processes.
What emerges is a program that places equal weight on process and outcome. While Bespoke has long provided a platform for experimentation within Queensland Ballet’s season, the 2026 iteration sharpens that focus, positioning the program as a deliberate investment in new choreographic voices and interdisciplinary practice.
Running from 2 to 17 October at the Talbot Theatre, Thomas Dixon Centre, Bespoke 2026 offers audiences a glimpse into the evolving ecology of Australian dance, where collaboration across disciplines is not simply an aesthetic choice, but a structural one.