There was optimism in the air at The Australian Ballet’s 2021 season launch in December last year. “We have weathered the storm,” TAB’s new Artistic Director David Hallberg said, “and it is with renewed spirit that we return to the stage”.

Unfortunately Hallberg’s “welcome-back gala”, Summertime at the Ballet, poignantly offered only a short respite from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Postponements and cancellations soon followed. Anna Karenina, a holdover from former AD David McAllister’s final 2020 season, made it to the stage in Adelaide only. Harlequinade, Romeo and Juliet and DanceX existed only in the rehearsal room.

The Australian Ballet. Photo © Pierre Toussaint

It’s time to try again. “We are so ready to get back,” Hallberg said as he presented the TAB 2022 program, his second for the company. The big full-length works Anna Karenina, Romeo and Juliet and Harlequinade are scheduled once more. Yuri Possokhov’s Anna Karenina will be staged in Melbourne in February-March and Sydney in April. The commedia dell’arte romp Harlequinade will warm Melbourne in June and Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet will be seen in Melbourne...