David McAllister AC (b. 1963), dancer and former artistic director of the Australian Ballet, began studying ballet in Perth in the early 1970s. Having weathered harassment for his love of dance, at seventeen he left for Melbourne and further training at the Australian Ballet School. He joined the Australian Ballet in 1983 and was promoted to principal artist with the company in 1989. After making his final appearance as dancer in Giselle in 2001 he became the Australian Ballet's artistic director shortly afterwards. During twenty years in this role, McAllister helped to transform the company into one of the best dance companies in the world. In his 2020 memoir he writes that highlights of his tenure include choreographing a new production of Sleeping Beauty (2015), supporting local choreographers and introducing a maternity leave policy and a health and wellness team. Since retiring in 2020, he has choreographed a new Swan Lake (2021) for the Finnish National Ballet.
The concept for Peter Brew-Bevan's photograph was based on Matisse's The Dance and features four dancers from the Australian Ballet. As the photographer recalled, 'I wanted to create a kinetic energy, a perfect storm around David, so we created the blurred chaos.' In the image, McAllister is captured looking down at the rings on his finger, which belonged to his mother and grandmother.
Commissioned with funds provided by The Stuart Leslie Foundation 2016
© Peter Brew-Bevan
The Stuart Leslie Foundation (1 portrait supported)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
8 September 2020
Penelope Grist’s spirits soar with Lisa Tomasetti’s Dancers in the Streets series.
9 June 2020
Tedi Bills on how social media in the age of COVID-19 has fanned the flames of our portrait fascination.
