West Australian Ballet
West Australian Ballet — Australia’s oldest ballet company
West Australian Ballet is Australia’s oldest ballet company, founded in 1952 — predating The Australian Ballet by a decade. The company is based at the WA Ballet Centre in Maylands, with mainstage productions at His Majesty’s Theatre on Hay Street, Perth. The company runs a typical year of four mainstage productions plus the annual Nutcracker, with substantial regional Western Australian touring. The artistic director since 2024 is Krzysztof Pastor, succeeding Aurélien Scannella’s decade-long tenure.
The company’s programming line balances classical mainstays (the standard Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppélia, The Nutcracker) with contemporary commissions and triple bills, often programmed in collaboration with the major international touring choreographers. The intimate scale of His Majesty’s Theatre — 1,194 seats — produces a closer-to-the-stage experience than the larger Sydney and Melbourne ballet houses can offer.
Home venues
- His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth — the principal mainstage.
- Crown Theatre Burswood — used for selected larger-scale productions.
- Quarry Amphitheatre, Perth — used for the company’s outdoor summer productions.
How to book
Subscriptions open in mid-September; single tickets follow in late October. The full-length classical productions sell strongly; Nutcracker tickets for December weekend matinees should be booked by late September. The annual quarry-amphitheatre summer production is the company’s most distinctive calendar event and tickets release in early summer.
Useful links
- Official: waballet.com.au
- Where we cover them: Companies, Reviews