After its 2019 world premiere by Joffrey Ballet in Chicago and its Australian Ballet debut in Adelaide in 2021, Yuri Possokhov’s Anna Karenina finally arrived last week at the State Theatre in Melbourne. “At last!” said the company’s Artistic Director David Hallberg to the audience’s first season opening night in two years. Bristling with excitement, the house cheered and clapped, ready to dive into Leo Tolstoy’s literary Russian odyssey in dance form.

Robyn Hendricks and Adam Bull in Anna Karenina, The Australian Ballet. Photo © Jeff Busby

Earlier reviews have lauded the organic construction of the ballet, incorporating projection, a massive score, sets and images that fly and slide to create scene after scene without a break. Amidst spaces and costumes of all kinds, coloured exquisitely at times, in threatening shadows and snowfalls at others, the mobility of the set elements reflects the emotional roller coaster created by Anna’s love for a man ten years her junior as she jettisons her marriage, her children, and ultimately, her life. These and other contexts were created by three prolific, internationally sought British designers working across the live performance and...