It was a relief not to see the grand pas de deux from Don Quixote. The Swan Lake Black Swan pas de deux was also absent. The Australian Ballet’s first appearance of the year, a Melbourne-only gala-style program presented over the weekend, featured some interesting choices by TAB artistic director David Hallberg.

Ballet Imperial, danced to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2, occupied the entire second half. It looked elegant and had the requisite magisterial air with Andrew Dunlop as the fine piano soloist. (Jonathan Lo conducted Orchestra Victoria throughout the evening.)

The Australian Ballet: Signature Works. Photo © Kate Longley

The first half opened with a somewhat truncated Kingdom of the Shades act from La Bayadère and continued with short pieces that mostly don’t belong to the category of signature company works but were of interest for a variety of reasons.

It was understandable although disappointing that The Kingdom of the Shades was performed entirely on the flat, with no entrance ramps to give the sense of spirit women coming from on high to haunt Prince Solor. That is its point. Robyn Hendricks as Nikiya came to the rescue, floating radiantly and stopping time in still, centred balances.

Davi Ramos dances La Bayadere – The Kingdom Of The Shades. Photo © Kate Longley

Hendricks’s Solor was senior artist Davi Ramos, who also partnered principal artist Sharni Spencer in the Grand Pas Classique pas de deux. Spencer, not long returned from maternity leave, looked immaculate and regal in this killer of a party piece. High-flying Ramos is turning out to be a most valuable partner in classical pieces and his expertise stood out on a night when principal men were not much in evidence. Joseph Caley was the only one of that select band to appear on Sunday. He brought to the stage the high sheen and confidence of experience.

Walter Bourke’s Grande Tarantella got a solid performance from Aya Watanabe and Cameron Holmes even if they weren’t quite joyous enough – possibly because this pas de deux is way, way harder to get through than it may appear.

The zippy Flames of Paris pas de deux was given heaps of bravura by newly appointed soloist Samara Merrick and new recruit Marko Juusela, also a soloist. The crystalline quality of Merrick’s extensions is a thing of wonder and beauty. She and Juusela looked a good match.

It was a treat to see another new company member, senior artist Precious Adams (formerly with English National Ballet), as a soloist in Kingdom of the Shades and Ballet Imperial. On the relatively brief evidence of Sunday night Adams is a lyrical, poised artist with an abundance of inner strength.

This Moment (Masukawa): Dancers Amy Ronnfeldt and Jeremy Hargreaves. Photo © Kate Longley

There were two contemporary pieces on the program of completely different stamp, both danced eloquently by junior TAB members.

Yuiko Masukawa made a wistful, elegiac quartet, This Moment, to the music of Caroline Shaw. Masukawa clearly has taste and as a winner of TAB’s Telstra Emerging Choreographer Award she is fruitfully on the company’s radar.

The jittery duo Morpheus’ Dream is a newish piece by Marco Goecke that looked modish and sounded it too with vocals by Lady Gaga (sadly not in person). Ballet-goers with keen memories will remember that a while ago Goecke behaved in a madly unacceptable manner towards a dance critic. He was on the outer for some time but companies have begun to stage his work again, as we see here.

This is what I reckon. I think TAB is opening the door to a revival of the stunning Kunstkamer, staged by TAB in 2022. It has (unusually) four choreographers, one of whom is Goecke. TAB pulled it from a UK tour in 2023 in the aftermath of the Goecke incident, replacing it with Balanchine’s Jewels. Goecke has now been brought back into the fold. Obviously this year’s program is sorted but will we see Kunstkamer again relatively soon? That would be excellent.