In 2006, David McAllister, the Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, invited Lisa Tomasetti to travel with the company on their tour to Paris and photograph the dancers in rehearsal and performance.

While she was there, Tomasetti suddenly had the idea of photographing them in their costumes out on the street. With McAllister’s permission she grabbed the brief moments when the dancers were available and took a series of striking shots. The dancers loved them, as did the media. Tomasetti has been The Australian Ballet’s official international tour photographer ever since, and on each tour she has photographed the dancers surprising the public as they leap and twirl in the city streets.

Reiko Hombo and NYPD, Times Square, New York, 2012. All photographs © Lisa Tomasetti

She has now released a hardback book called The Australian Ballet on the International Stage, which includes around 50 of those images with accompanying anecdotes by the dancers featured. The book is a tribute to McAllister, whose 20-year tenure as AD concludes at the end of this year.

“I always wanted to do a book of the images, which were a personal project that I did with the Ballet....