West Australian Ballet appoints new artistic director

The West Australian Ballet’s new artistic director is Aurelien Scannella, 38, who will succeed Ivan Cavallari next January.

Born in Belgium, Scannella, a former dancer and ballet master, says he has no plans to choreograph for the company.

That means the two main regional ballet companies in Australia – the Queensland Ballet and WA Ballet – will both hand over the reins from choreographers (Cavallari and Francois Klaus) to non-choreographers (Li Cunxin and Scannella). And that, in turn, should mean more work for local and international choreographers.

WA Ballet’s remaining two productions this year, Pinocchio and Nutcracker were choreographed by Cavallari who has been appointed director of the Ballet de l’Opera National du Rhin in Alsace, France.

Scannella trained at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp then joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders in 1992. He was a soloist at the Ballet of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf in 1995/96, then a freelance dancer with companies in Wiesbaden, Berlin and Basel until his retirement from the stage in 2008.

As a ballet master he has worked as a freelance with the Dutch National Ballet, Ballet d’Europe, Royal Swedish Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet and National Ballet of Prague.

Scannella will settle in Perth in January with his wife, French dancer, Sandy Delasalle, and their son, Mateo.