Direct from New York: How Australia scored the new work from a Tony award-winner

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In a significant coup for The Australian Ballet, the company will be the first outside the New York City Ballet to perform Copland Dance Episodes by Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck. Presented as part of the newly announced 2026 season, artistic director David Hallberg describes the non-narrative work as “like happiness and joy exuding from the stage”.

Peck’s work spans ballet, Broadway and film; he is the resident choreographer for the New York City Ballet, choreographed dance sequences in 2023’s Maestro and Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation of West Side Story, and has won the Tony Award for Best Choreography three times. “Justin Peck is one of the great creators in our field,” says Halberg.

Dancers Lilla Harvey, Elijah Trevitt, Larissa Kiyoto-Ward.

In 2022, The Australian Ballet and Peck worked together on the choreographer’s short work, Everywhere We Go. “I felt like the dancers really absorbed his movement well, and audiences really responded to the energy of it all. And so that really gave me impetus to bring more of Justin’s work into the company,” says Hallberg.

Premiering in 2023, Copland Dance Episodes is Peck’s first full-length dance work. “I remember seeing a studio rehearsal of it in New York,” he says. “I was like, ‘this’ll look really great on The Australian Ballet’ – so here we are,” he adds.

On bringing this work to The Australian Ballet: “I think it’s a level of confidence that Justin feels in the company. You have to really develop those relationships, I think, with any choreographer and a company – they have to feel that their work is properly interpreted and expressed on the dancers.”

The 2026 season comes on the back of a $9.1 million loss recorded in 2024, which, in an interview with the Australian Financial Review, the company attributed to a forced move to the Regent Theatre in Melbourne due to the State Theatre refurbishments. Asked if this impacted programming decisions, Hallberg says he is not equipped to “speak specifically about finances” but emphasises the importance of “responsible ambition”.

The Stuttgart Ballet will perform The Sleeping Beauty as part of The Australian Ballet’s 2026 season.

“My job on the flip side is to marry financial prudency with artistic ambition”, he says. “I don’t, nor do our audiences want us to lose the gift of art that we continue to give them and this organisation.”

While the company will perform in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Adelaide is not on the program this year. Responding to a follow-up query about this, Hallberg said: “The Australian Ballet won’t tour mainstage performances to Adelaide in 2026. We deeply value our Adelaide audiences, but theatre availability, logistics and programming demands prevent us next year. We’re already looking at how we can return to South Australia as soon as possible,” says Hallberg.

The 2026 season is a carefully considered mix of newer works and traditional favourites, including Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker. The Stuttgart Ballet will also perform The Sleeping Beauty. March sees the debut of a full-length work, Flora, a collaboration with Bangarra Dance Theatre. Copland Dance Episodes then kicks off in Melbourne in June.

“It’s a living, breathing art form … I’m excited to continue to perform the classics that really have given this art form its shape,” says Hallberg.

“But we have the capability of bringing in a work as big as Copland Dance Episodes that was created only a couple of years ago, and is a fresh kind of opinion and point of view on where dance is today. I think audiences deserve to see the freshest work that’s being created, not only here in Australia, but around the world.”

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