After its Melbourne season in February The Australian Ballet has brought John Neumeier’s Nijinsky to Sydney, looking even better than it did six weeks ago.

The opening night cast was the same, including a ferociously committed Callum Linnane in the title role. He has charisma to burn, which is not a bad thing when you’re playing the God of the Dance.

That wasn’t a surprise to see. The revelation, in Melbourne and even more so in Sydney, was Grace Carroll as Nijinsky’s wife Romola. Carroll has been with the company only four years and is at the moment a coryphée, the second rung from the bottom of the ladder.

She is destined for great things, perhaps helped by training that includes time at the Paris Opera Ballet School and The Royal Ballet School and therefore exposure to qualities those schools and traditions prize – elegance and understated sophistication (Paris) and dramatic fidelity and expressiveness (The Royal).

Grace Carroll in The Australian Ballet’s Nijinsky. Photo © Daniel Boud

Whatever the reasons, Carroll’s Romola had the divine spark. She has the kind of stage presence that draws the eye, even when in complete stillness on...