In September last year, under the Artistic Directorship of Aurélien Scannella, the West Australian Ballet returned to His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth to perform Dracula. The multi-award-winning ballet by choreographer and Artistic Director of the Polish National Ballet, Krzysztof Pastor, was one of the first mainstage ballets to be performed anywhere in the world. In Warsaw, Pastor’s own ensemble returned to the stage of the Grand Theatre with Le Corsaire. Since then, a resurgence in the number of cases of COVID-19 across Europe has forced the closure of theatres again. As they look beyond this latest disruption, Jansson J. Antmann talks to Scannella, Pastor and Lisa Pavane, Australian Ballet School Director and former prima ballerina, about the impact on the ballet world.

Aurélien Scannella as Old Dracula with Matthew Edwardson and Oliver Edwardson as Phantom Butlers in rehearsals for West Australian Ballet’s Dracula Photo © Scott Dennis 

Prior to the lockdown, the West Australian Ballet had been enjoying unprecedented economic and creative success. Its performances during the annual Ballet at the Quarry in February 2020, which included Pastor’s In Light and Shadow took place as dark clouds gathered over the horizon. Within a...