The Australian Ballet entered the new millennium with a bold creative appointment. Fresh from the dancer's ranks and with no leadership experience, David McAllister took over from Ross Stretton as Artistic Director in 2001. 

Come the 1980s, the Australian economy was booming. It was a time of excess and consumption, and The Australian Ballet's audience was broader than ever before.

Australia's fever for ballet began in the early 20th century with the arrival of Anna Pavlova, and later, the Ballet Russes, who enraptured audiences and galvanized Australia's first ballet company - the Borovansky Ballet.