RAISING THE BARRE
Casting a major ballet production is usually a pretty straightforward affair. Principal dancers get selected to play the coveted lead characters in big-name shows like Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, while those a little further down the dancer hierarchy support them in roles more suited to their ranking based on experience and skill. Every so often however, a casting decision is made, often by a guest choreographer, that both surprises and delights onlookers.
That’s exactly what happened when Imogen Chapman, a soloist with The Australian Ballet, was personally chosen by visiting Russian choreographer Yuri Possokhov to be one of the dancers to play Anna Karenina is his adaptation of the Tolstoy classic, which hits the stage this month in Melbourne.
In May 2019, Possokhov, a world-renowned choreographer (as well as former principalfor the upcoming 2020 season.
