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Between 1965 and 1974 she co-directed the company with Australian-born Robert Helpmann who spent more than half the year living and working in London.  While introducing the work of Ashton and the classics into the company Helpmann and van Praagh also made a conscious deicison to commission Australian ballets – the first one being Melbourne Cup by Rex Reid. 

The company flourished and rapidly achieved enough international standing to attract the like sof Dame Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, Ekaterina Maximova and Sonia Arova to dance with them.  (This tradition  has continued with The Australian Ballet  playing host most recently to Darcey Bussell and Sylvie Guillem.)

Helpmann brought Nureyev to The Australian Ballet and his productons of Don Quixote and Raymondabecame the company’s calling cards overseas.  In 1975 another Englishwoman, Anne Woolliams took over the helm and introduced John Cranko’s Oneginand Romeo and Juliet from Stuttgart where she had worked as his assistant.  She also introduced her own staging of SwanLake, following on from Dame Peggy’s. After Woolliams’ departure, van Praagh returned for a year in 1978, during which she commissioned the first ballet for AB from Graeme Murphy, Tekton, and also introduced the first Kylian work.

Former Borovansky ballerina Marilyn Jones took over after van Praagh’s retirement and ran the company for three years, during which time she established money-earning full-length productions  (Coppélia, Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Three Musketeers), opened the company up to Europe, the US and Asia with works by MacMillan, Tetley, Robbins and Choo San Goh and commissioned the seminal Beyond Twelve from Murphy.

From 1983 MainaGielgud stepped in and brought the company to England for the first time in 1988 with her production of Sleeping Beauty. In 14 years, she commissioned 39 Australian ballets and broke new ground when she commissioned Alchemy from Stephen Page, artistic director of the Aboriginal Bangarra Dance Company. Gielgud’s successor, Ross Stretton, continued this alliance with Rites.

Now under the leadership of David McAllister, the  Australian Ballet dances with its own unique style.  The dancers have inherted a strong techinique based on the best of the English school, and an appetite for fast movment influenced by the Ballets Russes and Borovansky Ballet. They have youth, energy, passion and an outgoing nature, qualities inspired by their own environment and cultural backdrop.

David McAllister AM, Artistic Director
A graduate of The Australian Ballet School, Perth-born David McAllister began his training with Evelyn Hodgkinson and joined The Australian Ballet in 1983. He was promoted to Senior Artist in 1986 and to Principal Artist in January 1989. His principal roles have included those in Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, The Sentimental Bloke, Coppélia, Manon, La Sylphide, Sinfoniettaand Stepping Stones.

In 1985 he won a Bronze Medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow and the same year won the Oceanic Equity Arts Award for Young Achievers in Perth. As a result of the Moscow Competition he was invited to return to the USSR as a guest artist and made numerous appearances with the Bolshoi Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, the Georgian State Ballet and other companies in Don Quixote, Giselle and in gala performances.

In 1989 he was guest artist with The National Ballet of Canada alternating in the roles of Mercutio and Benvolio in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet and in Etudes and The Four Temperaments. He has also been a guest artist with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Singapore Dance Theatre.  In 1997, David McAllister danced in several premiere ballets: In the Upper Room, Theme and Variations and Cinderella, and in 1998 in La Bayadére and 1914. A highlight of 1999 was the opening night of Don Quixote in Shanghai. In 2000 he performed the role of Doctor/BelovedOfficer in Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker and recreated his 1993 ABC Television simulcast role of Camille in The Merry Widow.

David McAllister has worked as a guest teacher with The Australian Ballet School, The DancersCompany, the Royal Academy of Dancing, the Cecchetti Society, Australian Institute of Classical Dance and at various summer schools. In November 2000, he completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts and Entertainment Management at Deakin University.

David McAllister danced for the final time in Giselle on 24 March 2001 at the Sydney Opera House and became Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet in July 2001. In 2004, David was awarded the Member (AM) in the general division for " service to the performing arts, particularly as artistic director for The Australian Ballet and as a Principal Artist.