Music has always been a huge passion and probably the reason I love to dance. That’s the headline really. I’ve always loved the piano. My grandfather Evan Benjamin, my dad’s dad, played very well. He even accompanied silent films in Rockhampton. I used to sit on the piano stool with him in his house as he played. He was always dressed up. Every day, he put on a suit with high boots – really trendy and gorgeous.

Leanne Benjamin. Photo © Jason Bell

A pianist would come in on a Saturday morning to my ballet class in Rockhampton and it was such a joy because, for practical reasons, we’d mostly have to do our classwork to taped music.

The Ligeti piano pieces [British choreographer] Christopher Wheeldon used for Polyphonia would have to be the most difficult music I’ve ever danced to. The opening piece was called Désordre (Disorder), and that’s exactly what it felt like. Four couples, all trying to be together, trying to work out Ligeti. Disorder. That was interesting.

When I was little, I used to put Chopin on our old record player all...