The Australian dance community has lost another of its enduring figures with the death of Colin Peasley, a foundation member of The Australian Ballet.

The news comes shortly after the annoucement of the death of Peasley’s contemporary Garth Welch earlier this week.

For more than five decades Peasley exerted a profound influence on the company, serving as dancer, character artist, ballet master and educator. Known for his warmth, intelligence and humour, Peasley helped shape what he proudly called an “Australian style” of classical dance.

Colin Peasley in Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake for The Australian Ballet. Photo © Lisa Tomasetti

Peasley joined the company in 1962, already an experienced performer whose eclectic background included ballroom, tap, acrobatics and modern dance. On stage he specialised in character roles: Gamache in Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote, Baron Mirko Zeta in The Merry Widow, Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet among them. He was insistent that story ballets should present thinking, feeling figures rather than posturing types.

His career traced the rise of the company itself. He danced under founding artistic director Dame Peggy van Praagh and toured with Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, including the celebrated American tour built around Don Quixote with Lucette Aldous. 

From 1975 to 1993 he served as ballet master and repetiteur, dedicating himself wholeheartedly to passing on his knowledge and experience to generations of young dancers. 

In 1994 he established The Australian Ballet’s education program and later served as the company’s Education Manager until 2010.

Colin Peasley in The Australian Ballet’s Anna Karenina, 1995. Photo © Earl Carter

Peasley’s contribution to dance was recognised with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1996. In 2012, he was made a life member of The Australian Ballet and in 2013 received the Green Room Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award. He formally retired that same year, but continued to appear on stage until 2018, when he took his final curtain call as the Baron in The Merry Widow. Peasley left the stage with more than 6,000 performances under his belt.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Colin Peasley OAM, a beloved artist and teacher who devoted his life to sharing the joy of ballet,” said a spokesperson for The Australian Ballet.

“Today we honour Colin Peasley not only as a performer of rare talent, but as a teacher, mentor and advocate who helped shape the heart and spirit of The Australian Ballet, all with his trademark sense of humour. His influence will be felt for generations to come.”