David Hallberg Returns to the U.S. Leading The Australian Ballet

David Hallberg will bring The Australian Ballet to the United States this fall, touring Christopher Wheeldon's 2024 full-length ballet Oscar to Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall (September 25–27) and New York City Center (October 8–11). The company also performs resident choreographer Stephanie Lake's Seven Days at City Center's Fall for Dance Festival on October 2–3.

For Hallberg, who has led the Melbourne-based company as artistic director since 2021, the tour collapses two chapters of his life. The pandemic denied him retirement performances at American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Ballet, but he had already moved to Australia to start his new role. A former principal with ABT and the Bolshoi and former guest principal with The Royal Ballet, he knew the company from his years as a resident guest artist.

"I have these two worlds: my 20-year dance career and then this one that I've lived for almost six years, with this company I've put my blood, sweat, and tears into," Hallberg told Pointe over Zoom. "Bringing them together is surreal, but it's also a moment I'm incredibly proud of. And while I never had a farewell in the U.S., I never wanted the farewell—I'm really at peace with how my performance career ended."

A signature commission

Oscar is among the most significant commissions of Hallberg's directorship. Wheeldon's ballet draws on two of Oscar Wilde's famous works, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Picture of Dorian Gray, and chronicles the Irish writer's romantic relationships and his persecution as a gay man in 19th-century London. It is the first completely original full-length work commissioned by The Australian Ballet in 20 years.

Hallberg and Wheeldon developed the project toward the end of the pandemic with the stated intention of creating a large narrative work for contemporary audiences. "The question I asked is: What stories are we telling for today's audiences? How are we evolving this art form?" Hallberg said. "We agreed on works that represent a broader diversity of experience onstage. He had the idea of Oscar Wilde, and I wanted to tell bold, different stories, so it was marrying these two ideas."

The ballet does not soften Wilde's fate. Convicted of "gross indecency," or homosexuality, Wilde spent the final part of his life persecuted and doing hard labor. "We really tell that story, especially in Act II," Hallberg said. "We don't shy away from it."

Joby Talbot's original score will be played by a live orchestra in both Berkeley and New York. "It's important that we bring the entire original concept on tour," Hallberg said.

When asked why he chose Oscar over familiar repertoire such as Swan Lake, Hallberg was direct: "The thing about Oscar is that it's ours. This is who The Australian Ballet is today. This is how we're defining ourselves apart from other companies. We're proud to tell that story." He added: "I want to tell stories that broaden the audience's perspective of what's possible in classical ballet."

Lake's "Seven Days"

At Fall for Dance, the company presents Stephanie Lake's Seven Days, her most recent work for the troupe. Lake has spent 20 years in Melbourne's contemporary-dance scene and runs her own company; Hallberg appointed her resident choreographer after immersing himself in the local scene on his arrival. Seven Days takes on J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. "It's a very bespoke work on the seven artists performing it," Hallberg said. "It's physical, it has humor, it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's very Australian."

Learning to lead

Hallberg described his growth as a director over nearly six years. "I came in a rookie, very green in managing," he said. "Over six years, I've learned—and I'm still learning—how to strategically manage and create a vision for The Australian Ballet. It was difficult to go from 'me, me, me' to nothing about me. But it is so refreshing for it to not be about me anymore!"

His artistic vision, he said, has matured from pure gut instinct into something more holistic—balancing what audiences want and need, what the dancers want and need, and what is organizationally responsible.

In the studio, Hallberg draws on the differing styles and coaching he absorbed at ABT, The Royal Ballet and, most importantly, in Russia. But his priority is ownership. "It's important to me that everyone onstage is equally valued and committed," he said. "Sometimes I don't even watch the principals—I'm watching how somebody is sitting on a chair, how they enter with a wheelbarrow. That's what makes the stage bubble."

Distance from the major ballet capitals has brought advantages, Hallberg said. As Australia's biggest ballet company, The Australian Ballet operates in a market that is not oversaturated, with autonomy over repertoire and premieres, and audiences he described as very open to new experiences. The cost is personal: his family and closest friends remain in New York City and London. "I'm an Australian citizen now," he said. "But I do feel far away at times."

The U.S. tour will be the first full test of whether Hallberg's six-year rebuild of The Australian Ballet can command the stages where he built his own name.