Queensland Ballet has announced that its new director, following the retirement of Li Cunxin, will be Ivan Gil-Ortega who will take on the role in February this year. Gil-Ortega is a celebrated ballet professional with over 25 years in the field. He has held roles with companies and creatives around the world, and has worked as a principal dancer, assistant director, artistic consultant, freelance rehearsal director, stager, and coach.
In part the media release says:. Throughout the recruitment process, Ivan articulated his vision very clearly with a particular focus on our dancers of today and our dancers of tomorrow, through the work of our Academy. He is also brimming with ideas around nurturing home-grown talent here in Australia as well as exploring world-stage collaborations and exchanges which will see him leaning into his international peers and networks.
Ivan and his family are very much looking forward to calling Queensland home and we cannot wait to see them here very soon, Brett Clark AM, Board Chair said. Follow this link to a fuller biography of Gil-Ortega provided by Queensland Ballet. Things appear to be changing, however. A recent media release announced that in February Knobloch will be returning to Canberra, where he was born and educated and where he had his initial dance training.
Here is a link to the media release. Here is the footage, which I found to be an interesting variety of community dance. It reminded me a little of a unexpected performance at a wedding of one of my sons back around the same date as the footage.
Quite out of the blue I thought anyway the guests assembled and danced in a similar fashion. It was somewhat different from the traditional celebratory wedding waltz! I had the immense pleasure in January of recording an oral history for the National Library of Australia with Megan Connelly, currently director of the Australian Ballet School.
