Queensland Ballet’s Artistic Director, Leanne Benjamin OBE AM, has left the company after less than a year due to funding constraints.
Queensland Ballet in Australia said in a press release that Ms. Benjamin departed the company as of 2 August, 2024, on a mutual agreement. Assistant Artistic Director Greg Horsman has stepped in her role to focus on finalising the 2025 season.
Executive Director Dilshani Weerasinghe said that the company had no option but to work within its financial constraints, and that it had to lean heavily into its existing repertory in the near future.
“Queensland Ballet’s circumstances are such that Leanne has not been able to infuse our 2025 offerings with her own artistic aspirations as much as she was hoping," Ms. Weerasinghe said. "This has been understandably dispiriting for Leanne and, although she might not be sitting with us as our Artistic Director in 2025, we will most certainly feel her legacy in Queensland Ballet’s investment in Australian and female voices, amongst other elements that she has inspired.”
Ms. Benjamin said, “it is with great sadness that we have shared the news this week with the Queensland Ballet team.
“Ultimately, as we have worked together to design a vibrant season for 2025, it has become very clear that my artistic aspirations for our company, including the opportunity to engage diverse choreographic voices, both international and Australian, and venture outside of the traditional theatre environment with immersive opportunities, is not immediately possible within the funding constraints faced by the company.”
Ms. Benjamin was born in Queensland, Australia. Her world stage career as a ballerina spans over decades. She retired from the stage in 2013 as Principal of the Royal Ballet in the UK. Queensland Ballet announced her appointment as the sixth artistic director in December 2023 and welcomed her only earlier this year.
Carlos Acosta and Federico Bonelli are ex-Royal Ballet principals, who now work as the artistic directors of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Northern Ballet, respectively. Tamara Rojo, who was a principal dancer of the company from 2000 to 2012, was the artistic director of the English National Ballet until 2022 and has been the artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet since then.
Separately, the Financial Review reported that the number of boys who signed up for Australian ballet schools has fallen significantly since the COVID pandemic, leading the Queensland Ballet's academy to offer free weekly classes for boys aged 11-14.
Click here for the Queensland Ballet's press statement.