Australia Dancing - Burnett, Adrian

Burnett, Adrian

Busby, Jeff: Miranda Coney and Adrian Burnett in Jiri Kylian's 'Bella Figura', the Australian Ballet, 2000

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Born in New Zealand, Adrian Burnett graduated from the Australian Ballet School in 1987 and joined the Australian Ballet in 1988. He was promoted to soloist in 1992 but left Australia the following year to dance with the Basel Ballet in Switzerland. He rejoined the Australian Ballet in 1994 and was promoted to leading soloist in 1996. In 1999 Burnett received the Lissa Black Award and, with added assistance from the Australia Council's emerging artists' scheme, spent time in the United States and Europe studying choreography. He was promoted to senior artist in 2003 and during that year he co-directed, with David McAllister, the Australian Ballet's 40th anniversary program, Beyond Forty.

Burnett's first choreographic piece was Pitch 'n' Sway created for an Australian Ballet choreographic workshop, New Moves, in 1995. The following year he developed the piece into Motion Pool for the Dancers Company. Since then he has been commissioned by several companies in Australia and overseas, including Houston Ballet, New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, the Dutch National Ballet, the Australian Ballet, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and West Australian Ballet and has choreographed over 20 original works. For West Australian Ballet, where his career was nurtured by the then artistic director Ted Brandsen, he created Current Air Freight Issue in 2000 for the odyssey season and In Near Ruins in 2001 for the Terra Incognita season. His Subtle Sequence of Revelation was performed as part of a joint season by the Australian Ballet and West Australian Ballet in 2002 and won a Green Room award for best new choreography.

Burnett was a resident choreographer with the Australian Ballet from 2003 to 2006, choreographing a number of highly idiosyncratic and bold works for the company, including Aesthetic Arrest to John Adams' Fearful Symmetries in 2004 and Relic, to Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste for the company's 'White' program in 2005. In 2008 he was commissioned to create a new Don Quixote for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

As an independent artist, Burnett works as a choreographer, creative director, guest teacher and producer for special events. In addition to his choreographic career he has produced a number of high profile events, notably the appearances of Pricilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical at Australia's G'day LA events in Los Angeles and New York. In 2009 he was invited to assist Rafael Bonachela on We Unfold and the national tour of 360 Degrees for the Sydney Dance Company. He is a regular guest teacher with international dance companies and teaching institutions including the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Australian Ballet and Architanz in Tokyo, Japan. His work in dance education has also included the development of a national education program for The Australian Ballet in collaboration with Helen Cameron, the company's education consultant.

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Find more about Burnett, Adrian in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia