Tortured genius Vaslav Nijinsky is honoured in the company’s flagship production of next year’s season.

Australian Ballet promised a year of beauty in its 2015 offering and the nation’s premiere ballet troupe didn’t disappoint. Perhaps there was a tinge of sadness as Principal Dancer Madeleine Eastoe, unquestionably one of the finest dancers of her generation who announced her retirement in March, gave her swansong performances as Titania in Ashton’s The Dream, and in the title role of Giselle, to unanimously glowing acclaim. However overwhelmingly this year delivered a sumptuously opulent, and dare I say an almost decadent celebration of some of the greatest classical ballet works of the canon, crowned by Artistic Director David McAllister’s lavish production of The Sleeping Beauty.

If 2015 can be said to have been an homage to the beauty and spectacle of the great classical, narrative repertoire, McAllister’s selection for 2016 champions a more contemporary aesthetic, featuring a bold focus on the dance mavericks of the recent past who challenged conventions and pushed the boundaries of modern ballet into extraordinary new areas. “The idea of this year was to look at works that have...