David McAllister (dancer)

David Graeme McAllister AM (born 26 November 1963) is the former Artistic Director and Principal Dancer of The Australian Ballet.

Biography

David McAllister was born in Perth, Western Australia. A graduate of The Australian Ballet School, he joined The Australian Ballet in 1983. He was promoted to Senior Artist in 1986 and to Principal Artist in January 1989. His many principal roles with the company included those in Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, The Sentimental Bloke, Coppélia, Manon, La Sylphide, Sinfonietta and Stepping Stones.

In 1985, he won a Bronze Medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow, which saw him invited to return to the USSR as a guest artist, where he made numerous appearances with the Bolshoi Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, the Georgian State Ballet and other companies.[1] In 1989 David was guest artist with The National Ballet of Canada, dancing John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet as well as Etudes and The Four Temperaments. He has also been a guest artist with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Singapore Dance Theatre. In London 1992, he took part in the Royal Gala performance of Coppélia in the presence of the Princess of Wales.

McAllister has worked as a guest teacher with The Australian Ballet School, The Dancers Company, the Royal Academy of Dancing, the Cecchetti Society, and the Australian Institute of Classical Dance. In November 2000, he completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts and Entertainment Management at Deakin University.

David McAllister danced for the final time in Giselle on 24 March 2001 at the Sydney Opera House and became Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet in July 2001.[2] He was elected Vice President of the Royal Academy of Dance in 2005. In March 2020, it was announced that David Hallberg will succeed McAllister as the new artistic director of The Australian Ballet, effective January 2021.[3]

David published his memoirs, SOAR: A Life Freed By Dance, in September 2020.[4][5]

Honours

In 2001, he was awarded a Centenary Medal.[6]

In the 2004 Australia Day Honours List he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to ballet.[7]

Personal

McAllister is the domestic partner of Australian playwright and artistic director[8] Wesley Enoch.[9]

Notes
  1. "David McAllister celebrates 30 years with The Australian Ballet - Dance Informa Magazine". dancemagazine.com.au. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  2. Dunn, Amanda (2012-02-19). "Born to dance". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  3. Sulcas, Roslyn (2020-03-02). "David Hallberg to Run the Australian Ballet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  4. Lawson, Valerie (2020-06-05). "Curtain call: ballet's departing David McAllister has written a memoir". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
  5. "New memoir by David McAllister - Dance Australia". www.danceaustralia.com.au. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
  6. It's an Honour: Centenary Medal
  7. It's an Honour: AM
  8. Wikipedia
  9. Limelight, December 2018, My Music: Wesley Enoch, p. 114


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