Lisa Pavane arrived at the Australian Ballet School as a starry-eyed teenager. Forty-six years later, she’s leaving after nine years as its director. The school celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024, but has only been overseen by four directors across that period.
Each person who led the school clearly left their mark; during Pavane’s tenure, the old stereotype of the draconian ballet taskmaster who demands everything of their students has been replaced by an approach she describes as “holistic”. Lisa Pavane is retiring after nine years helming the Australian Ballet School. Credit: Hilary Walker “We’re so fortunate in the way that we’re looking at our young people and their health and wellbeing.
That’s a real lens now,” she says. “It’s a very vigorous vocation, so having that education around how you look after your body and how you learn about it and how you fuel it, prepare it, condition it, is leaps and bounds from when I went to the school.” When Pavane was a student, there was an implicit understanding that dancers were to be seen and not heard.
Now the atmosphere is one of collaboration. “We’re trying to break down that hierarchy, that power between teacher and student and really levelling it out. Inviting young people to step into the space, to be their own learners and understand their learning.
We’re inviting a lot more conversation.” Greg Horsman and Lisa Pavane perform in Giselle, 1990. Credit: The Australian Ballet Dancer and chor.
